Stalin-era prison chief jailed for 20 years in Romania

Alexandru Visinescu, the commander of the Ramnicu Sarat prison in eastern Romania between 1956 and 1963 while the country was under communist rule, leaves a court in Bucharest September 24, 2014. REUTERS/Bogdan Cristel

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - A 90-year-old Stalin-era prison commander faced the rest of his life in prison on Wednesday after Romania's top court dismissed his last appeal against a 20-year jail term for murder and crimes against humanity.

Alexandru Visinescu was convicted in July of direct involvement in the deaths of 12 inmates, the first case of its kind since the collapse of Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorship in 1989.