Dictator Ceausescu's body exhumed

Forensic scientists exhumed the bodies of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena today at the request of the couple’s family.

A team of pathologists and cemetery officials hoisted the wooden coffins of the Ceausescus out of their graves.

Officials took samples from the corpses and put them into plastic bags in a process lasting more than two hours.

The family doubts that the Ceausescus were really buried in Bucharest’s Ghencea cemetery.

Son Valentin Ceausescu said: “We are closer to knowing the truth.”

Ceausescu ruled Romania for 25 years and was ousted and executed during the 1989 anti-communist revolt in which more than 1,000 were killed.