president, Pop de Băsești, the secretaries Vasile Lucaciu and Septimiu Albini, and other PNR leaders who acknowledged their involvement in drafting and publishing the petition. Consequently, on 7 May 1894, 14 leaders of the PNR, including Pop de Băsești, were put on trial in Kolozsvár for various charges, ranging from disturbing the peace to high treason. On 25 May 1894, the verdicts were handed down: all the accused were found guilty, and on 27 May 1894, the judge sentenced them to imprisonment for terms ranging from 5 years (Vasile Lucaciu) to 1 year, in total 31 years and 2 months. Pop de Băsești was handed the mildest sentence (of one-year imprisonment), his only regret being that he received less than the others. Present at the trial, Octavian Goga witnessed that moment: "All the accused acknowledged the sentences in a manful manner. Leading the group, Father Lucaciu seemed to be an ancient hero. Mr. Rațiu came in with his head held high. [..] Only Brother Gheorghe wept because he said they mocked him by handing him a milder sentence than his fellows." On 28 July 1894, the PNR was banned by the Hungarian authorities, who invoked the lack of a party statute and "relations with foreign elements". Pop de Băsești served his sentence in the Vác prison until 5 August 1895. As his wife Maria passed away he was shortly released on parole on 11 June 1895 so that he could attend her burial. Eventually all signatories of the memorandum were pardoned by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1895, following secret negotiations between Austria-Hungary and the Romanian king Carol I. Later political activity After Ioan Rațiu's death in 1902, Gheorghe Pop de Băsești was elected president of the PNR. On 10 January 1905, Pop de Băsești summoned the national conference of the PNR in Nagyszeben, where it was decided to rescind the policy of political passivism and to engage again in the electoral process. At the elections that year he ran for the deputy seat in Szilágycseh, nevertheless he lost in the second round against the Liberal candidate, Baron Elemér Bornemisza, after harsh measures had been employed to rig the results: Pop de Băsești (then 69 years old) and his supporters were beaten (some of them to death) by political opponents. The situation would repeat during the 1906 elections. Philanthropic work Although he never abandoned politics, Gheorghe Pop de Băsești focused on