Back in the day, when regime change was far more of a gentlemanly pursuit, the show trial held sway as the most appropriate way of denouncing the previously untouchable leader. Nowadays regime's blunder on (in some cases for over 60 years) clinging to the last vestiges of power or are found hiding in a hole in the ground and summarily executed by a rampaging mob.
Take for example the demise of the Ceaușescu's. How much more elaborate and petty it seems compared to simply stringing them up from the nearest lamp post!
Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were condemned to death in a Stalinist-style show trial, wherein even their forcefully assigned lawyers began accusing them of having committed capital crimes, instead of defending them.There were absolutely no proofs offered for their alleged crimes, just mentions of the name of the crimes they would have had committed in the opinion of the prosecutors and of press reports about their alleged crimes. E.g., the accusation of genocide remains unproven to this day. They were also accused of saving USD 1 billion in foreign accounts, and even today there is no proof of such secret accounts. The judges' verdict offered the possibility of making appeal to a higher court, but the condemned were killed five minutes after the court reached the verdict.One of their lawyers has motivated before the execution that since the condemned do not recognize the court, there is no way left for making appeal to the verdict, and therefore the verdict should become final. Romanian law prohibited carrying out death penalties in less than ten days since the verdict remained final and irrevocable.After their execution, death penalty was abolished in Romania.
Nicolae Ceaușescu said that he did not recognize the court, and lawfully seen he seems to have been correct about that. The person signing the decree for organizing the court (Ion Iliescu) lacked any credentials for doing it, except that of being one of the leaders of the coup. The decree was apparently handwritten in a toilet of the Romanian Department of Defense. Later, the leaders of the coup said the decision to kill the Ceaușescus was necessary in order to stop the terrorists from attacking the new authorities, but it seems that there were no terrorists active. Initially, Iliescu did not agree with having the couple executed, but general Victor Stănculescu offered the support of the army only in exchange for having the couple executed.After few hours of debating this option, Iliescu agreed with Stănculescu.
Before the execution Nicolae said: "We could have been shot without having this masquerade!" However, the Masquerade is what it is all about. Just ask Richard Jobson of The Skids "Arrange new attacks, Demand a new decree, Listen to the ploys, Destroy them as they flee. Holy to the high masquerade masquerade. Fanfares in the sky masquerade masquerade"
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