Tirgu Jiu - The Romanian miners' leader, Miron Cozma, led thousands of coal miners on a protest march towards the capital yesterday in defiance of a court conviction sentencing him to 18 years in jail.
Cozma joined some 5,000 Jiu Valley coal miners in a convoy of more than 100 buses that left this mining town near the Jiu Valley coalfield, apparently taking a southern route to Bucharest, 300 km (190 miles) to the east.
"To Bucharest!" the miners shouted before driving out of Tirgu Jiu. Local police declined to say where they were headed for. Cozma is still at liberty, despite a Supreme Court ruling on Monday imposing a heavier sentence for his role in leading anti-reform riots during which the first post-communist government was toppled in 1991.