The attack was planned and led by Oliviu Beldeanu, a sculptor born in 1924 in Dej. At the age of 15 he became a member of "Frunză Verde" ("Green Leaf"), a youth organisation associated with the fascist Iron Guard, and after the end of World War II he joined the anti-communist resistance movement. In 1949, he fled to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, only to return a few months later, allegedly as an agent of the UDBA. In 1951, Beldeanu arrived in Italy; he later settled in Konstanz, West Germany.