firing squad

Although the latter, the Romanian dictator, had his Order of the Bath honour taken away the day before he was shot by a firing squad, so it might not have seemed his biggest worry.

They described how these executions are carried out by firing squads in public to instil fear in people and discourage them from breaking the law.

On Christmas Day, Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were executed by firing squad after a trial at a military base that lasted two hours.

Perhaps the lone exception in Eastern Europe was Romania, where Nicolae Ceaușescu — who had broken with Moscow years earlier — maintained a rigid dictatorship and cult of personality up until he faced a firing squad.

Ainadamar is, in fact, the Arabic term for the Fountain of Tears, the site in Granada where Lorca was shot by a firing squad, presumably for political reasons as well as for being gay.