The last step Yesterday the Juridical Department in the Ministry for Internal affairs received from the specialised institutions the documents necessary to rehabilitate ex General Mihai Pacepa in military rank. The Juridical Department staff will study the documents, among which there is the sentence reached by the Supreme Court (CSJ). It asks that Mihai Pacepa be given back his rights, including political and military rights he was sacked from by he sentence in the summer of 1978. It means Pacepa will get back military rank as general and the pension he should have been paid all this time will be calculated. On 1999 June 7, Mihai Pacepa, former second chief of the Foreign Information Department in the Romanian Communist Secret Services was rehabilitated by The Supreme Court of Justice, by deciding to acquit him and return the fortune confiscated by the Communists, who had sentenced him to death for treason. CSJ accepted the canceling appeal against this decision by which, on 1978, August 17, Pacepa was sentenced to death by the Military Department of the Supreme Court House. He was also deprived of military rank and had his whole fortune confiscated. Afterwards Pacepa's lawyer Catalin Dancu asked that his rank be given back, as well as the correct pension and the properties confiscated by the Communists after he left the country in 1978. Among these properties there are: a collection of guns, paintings a house and other. Mihai Pacepa introduced a complaint on it to the CourtHouse in Sector 1 Bucharest. When the controversy started in January 2004, President Iliescu was saying Nicolae Ceausescu should be giving Pacepa back the rank. But after the scandal got hotter, Iliescu said the sentence reached must be applied. During his visit to Ploiesti on Wednesday. President Iliescu was declaring Pacepa would "probably" be rehabilitated as general. He specified the Presidency had no such attributions, but that he had discussed with the specialized institutions about applying the sentence. (A.M.)