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BUCHAREST — Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu, long-jailed as a Romanian communist-era "enemy of the state" manian anti-communist dissident Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu, who was jailed by the communists and later fought for the country's communist past to be revealed, died on Friday, the national news agency reported. He was 80.

Dumitrescu died at home two weeks after he was released from hospital where he was being treated for liver disease, Agerpres reported.

After communism ended in 1989, Dumitrescu was elected to Parliament where he fought as a senator for the exclusion of former communists from public life. He helped draft laws that led to the publication of the millions of files of the feared Securitate secret police files.

He was widely praised for his role in helping Romania move on from its troubled past, particularly as ex-communists continued to rule the country until 2004.

"We have lost one of the most powerful voices against communism," said President Traian Basescu.

"The departure of ... the one who remained upright and dignified during thousands of days of prison and interrogation faced with the challenges and methods of interrogating, humiliation and compromise," is a sad day for all Romanians.

Dumitrescu was sentenced to 27 years prison in 1949 for being an enemy of the state. From 1949 to 1964, he was incarcerated in communist jails or kept under house arrest.

After he was released he was not allowed to practice law that he had graduated in, and was forced to work in construction, a typical career path for former dissidents.

After retiring from the Senate in 2000, he published his memoirs "Witness and Document," in May detailing his time in a communist gulag. He was also chairman of the Association of Former Political Prisoners.

During communism, hundreds of thousands of Romanians were imprisoned or sent to labor camps for political reasons.

Romania is slowly addressing its communist past. Basescu officially condemned communism in a 2006 report and denounced it as "criminal and illegitimate" and guilty of committing crimes against humanity. This year two political detainees were awarded substantial compensation for their time in prisons.

Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown and executed in the 1989 revolution where some 1,100 people died.

There was no immediate word about survivors, or funeral arrangements for Dumitrescu.

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