BUCHAREST – Authorities on Tuesday confirmed the existence of a mass grave containing prisoners’ remains near the site of a former communist labor camp in eastern Romania. The discovery bolsters the case of investigators seeking genocide charges against the former commander of the penal colony.

A statement from the government’s Institute for Investigating the Crimes of Communism laid out the official findings. It said five skeletons were found — one’s right foot was missing, one had a dislocated spine and another’s legs were tied together.

Institute chief Andrei Muraru said the discovery revealed “brutality and primitivism in the management of the colony.”

The excavation, initiated by the institute, took place from Sept. 14 to Sept. 19 in a remote part of the Danube Delta near the former labor camp. Archaeologists helped authorities piece together the evidence. The institute wants prosecutors to charge the former Periprava camp commander, Ion Ficior, with genocide for the deaths of 103 political prisoners. Although the five skeletons were believed to be those of prisoners at the camp, it was not immediately clear if they belonged to any of the 103.