4.  The applicants were born in 1965 and 1954 respectively and live in Bucharest.
5.  Both applicants were ill-treated and injured on 21 December 1989 during the events which led to the fall of the communist regime in Bucharest. The first applicant suffered injuries that needed eight days of medical care and the second applicant was beaten by militia forces on the same occasion.
6.  In 1990 the military prosecutor’s office opened ex officio investigations into the illegal detention, ill-treatment and injury suffered by the applicants and other participants in the events of December 1989 in respect of several offences as mentioned below. The main criminal investigation was recorded in file no. 97/P/1990 (current no. 11/P/2014).
7.  In the meantime, an ex officio investigation concerning the offences of illegal deprivation of liberty, illegal arrest and abusive investigation of a large number of persons, including the applicants, culminated in the referral to court and subsequent conviction of senior military and public officials by a decision of the Supreme Court of Justice of 10 May 1991, which became final on 14 November 1991. The injured parties, including the applicants, did not participate in that procedure, as the Government acknowledged.
8.  As regards the offence of abusive conduct, the military prosecutor’s office decided on 9 March 1994 (in respect of the first applicant) and 28 October 1994 (in respect of the second applicant) not to open a separate ex officio investigation on the grounds that the offence of abusive conduct fell under a subsequently enacted amnesty law; that decision was communicated only to the second applicant on 4 October 2001. No decision was adopted in respect of the applicants’ injury.
9.  Further, without a formal decision to overturn the decisions issued by the military prosecutor’s office (see paragraph 8 above) and to reopen the applicants’ respective cases, in the main criminal investigation, the prosecutor heard the applicants who reiterated their complaints regarding the offences of illegal deprivation of liberty and homicide as an attempt raised on account of their ill-treatment and injury during the events of December 1989. Thus, the first applicant requested on 5 January 2005 and on 4 August 2008 to participate in these proceedings as a civil party and for the investigation of his case to be pursued by the military prosecutor’s office. In the main criminal investigation, the second applicant gave a statement on 4 October 2001 and lodged a civil claim on 17 May 2005, asking for the punishment of those responsible.
10.  The relevant procedural steps taken in the main criminal investigation were described in Association “21 December 1989” and Others v. Romania (nos. 33810/07 and 18817/08, §§ 12-41, 24 May 2011) and Anamaria‑Loredana Orășanu and Others v. Romania ([Committee] (nos. 43629/13 and 74 others, §§ 10‑11, 7 November 2017).
11.  On 14 October 2015, as regards the second applicant, the military prosecutor’s office issued a decision only in respect of the offence of instigation to illegal deprivation of liberty by closing the main criminal investigation on the grounds of res judicata in relation to the Supreme Court of Justice’s decision of 10 May 1991, failing to decide the offence of homicide as an attempt or her injury, as complained of (see paragraph 7 above). No decision was taken in respect of the first applicant.
12.  Although the parties have not communicated any information regarding the lodging of an appeal against this decision, it can be seen from the military prosecutor’s office website that it was subsequently quashed. Thus, on 1 November 2016 the military prosecutor’s office ordered the initiation in rem of a criminal investigation regarding the offence of crimes against humanity in respect of the same circumstances of fact. To date, the main criminal investigation is still ongoing.