Prague - Attorney General Renata Vesecká asked Thursday President Václav Klaus to pardon 86-year old Ludmila Brožová-Polednová, former Communist prosecutor who was sentenced to six years in prison.
Právo daily informed about this.
Brožová-Polednová was founded guilty for committing murder as a direct accomplice. She sentenced pro-democratic politician Milada Horáková to death in 1951.
The High Court in Pilsen argued that Brožová-Polednová was aware that the guilt and sentence of Milada Horáková was decided before the trial had started.
Read more: It is over. No more lawsuits with communist criminals
Humanitarian reasons
Vesecká backs her plea on humanitarian reasons. "I don't want contemporary justice to behave in the same way as that in the 1950s and imprison an elderly person," Vesecká said to Právo.
It was Vesecká who demanded reopening the case. Originally, the Supreme Court suspended the proceeding on the grounds that the crime is already time barred.
Vesecká assured that a pardon granted to Brožová-Polednová wouldn't change the "guilty" verdict. However, Vesecká believes that in the case of "old crimes", what is important is the moral layer of the case. Naming publicly those who were guilty is good enough, not sending them to prison them, according to Vesecká.
The Supreme Court confirmed the verdict of Prague Municipal Court that sentenced Brožová-Polednová to 8 years in prison. It was proven that even before the show trial with Horáková started, it was already decided what the result will be. Brožová-Polednová indisputably knew about the trumped up charges.
Horáková was accused of espionage and treason. She decided not to run for the parliamentary elections in protest against the communist coup on 28 February 1948.
Read more: Former prosecutor gets six years for judicial murder
The Hoffman case
Among those who bore responsibility for their deeds in the communist regime is also former high-ranking apparatchik Karel Hoffman who was sentenced to four years of imprisonment for cooperating with the Soviet occupants in 1968.
Forty years ago, on the night of 21 August, Hoffman ordered a halt to Czechoslovakian radio broadcast to prevent airing of the statement of the KSČ leadership that sharply criticized the invasion.
However, the 80-year old man stayed in prison only 26 days, before being released because of deteriorating health.
Read more: 1968 invasion conspirators: All unpunished but one
