Ceausescu execution pictures false, says firing squad member

A member of the firing squad which executed Nicolae Ceausescu says pictures of the event were faked.

Former Warrant Officer Dorin Carlan claims the famous pictures of the Christmas Day execution of the former dictator and his wife Elena in 1989 were false.

He says the pictures must have been manipulated as the execution did not happen as shown.

He says the squad fired, before an order was given, at an elderly couple as they came out of an army barracks.

He said he couldn't be sure he had shot the couple because he only saw them from a distance.

"Everyone started firing before any order was given as soon as we saw a couple appear at the door. But I don't know whether that was the Ceausescus because we didn't see them from close up," added Mr Carlan.

His claims follow a move by the Romanian Workers' Party to have Nicolae Ceausescu's body exhumed in a bid to find out exactly how he died.