Read more about the trial
Praha - Former prosecutor Ludmila Brožová - Polednová who helped send a prominent democratic politician Milada Horáková to the gallows nearly six decades ago will not be punished.
The Prague High City Court took into account the defendant´s appeal raised against the original ruling of 8 years in prison, arguing the criminal liability of the defendant was time-barred under the statute of limitations.
Polednová´s defence lawyer Vladimít Kovář confirmed the new ruling to Aktuálně.cz. The first media that brought the information was Czech public broadcaster Radiožurnál.
"The case is closed and will not be reopened. Only a direct appeal can be filed," stated Kovář. In this case it is the Supreme Court of Justice that the direct appeal can be filed with.
Not time-barred
Crimes are usually persecuted by laws enforced in the time the crimes are committed, should that be more beneficial to the defendant.
Judicial murder of Milada Horáková was then time-barred in twenty years, which means in 1970. In her case the period of twenty years, however, does not count the time between 1948 and 1989, when such crimes could not be sued, as they were part of the Communists´ cleansing.
That is the reason why the Office for Investigation of Crimes of Communism is convinced Horáková´s case is not barred under the statute of limitations and the verdict came in time.
The question is to what extent the High Court followed the defendant´s lawyer´s appeal or whether the High Court has different objections. High Court spokesperson Jan Fořt has refused to comment on the case.
Trumped-up charges
Milada Horáková, a lawyer by profession herself and a survivor of a German concentration camp, neither left the country nor stopped being politically active when communists took power in February 1948, thus becoming a nuisance for them, which they made sure to get rid of.
She was arrested on trumped-up charges of conspiracy and treason, subjected to a scripted show trial and executed in 1950 at the age of 49. She was post-humously rehabilitated, but not bfore the communist regime was toppled in 1990.
Ex-prosecutor Polednová, now 86, was sentenced to 8 years in prison by Municipal Judge Petr Braun in November last year for complicity in a judicial murder.
