Ștefan was transferred to Poarta Albă, being released in December 1952. He worked for a short time as a topographer and tried to continue his university studies. He was arrested again in 1954, before the first exams of his third year of college.

He was released after eight months, his health deteriorating. He was arrested for the third time on November 29, 1956, for the simple reason that the Hungarian Revolution had produced panic in the Eastern Bloc. The political police had conducted arrests among those suspected to have a connection with the revolt. In detention, in a cell in Jilava prison, he would tell Paul Goma about his experience of the violent action in Pitești. On the basis of his testimony, Goma will write, years later, the book that made known to the world the drama of the students tortured in Pitești and Gherla.

Released from prison after three years, he received forced residence in Lăţeşti, Bărăgan until 1963.

Aspects of the meetings of members of the subversive group – the Securitate used pictures from the weddings and baptisms of a group of friends, former inmates in Târgu Ocna (some of them having passed through Pitești) as proof of continuing anti-communist activity after release. A pram received as a present was taken to be 'legionaire aid'. In 1959 they were sentenced to 5 years in prison to hard labor for life.