Plzeň - Former prosecutor Ludmila Brožová-Polednová who helped send a prominent democratic politician Milada Horáková to the gallows nearly six decades ago was re-sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison.
The Pilsen High Court ruled so, arguing Brožová-Polednová committed murder as a direct accomplice. She was aware that the guilt and sentence of Milada Horáková was decided before the trial had started, argued the court.
For the first time the 86-year old former communist prosecutor appeared in the courtroom. In previous hearings she sent a representative who requested the trial take place in her absence excusing herself for being almost blind and deaf.
Her health was the reason why the court proceeding was exceptionally held in Pilsen this time, since she lives there.
Polednová declined to comment on the verdict. She has two months to appeal against the ruling.
Who was Milada Horáková
Milada Horáková, a lawyer and a survivor of a German concentration camp, was an active member of the resistance movement during the WWII. In 1940 she was arrested by the Nazi occupation forces and jailed until the end of the war.
After the WWII she was elected an MP representing the democratic socialist party. Following the communist coup in 1948 she left politics but not the country, thus becoming a nuisance for the communists, which they made sure to get rid of.
Only two years after the coup she was sentenced to death, being accused of conspiracy against the communists and attempts to establish capitalism in the country. She was supposed to provide information to the "enemies of the state", the accusation stated at that time.
Apart from Horáková, twelve more people were accused of similar crimes, with three receiving a death sentence.
Read more: Eight years in prison for judicial murder from 1950
Death sentence not again
The Pilsen court proceeding lasted several hours and the final speech of the judge took almost an hour.
"I want to be done with it," said Brožová-Polednová among other things.
She defended herself by being only a prosecutor at that time, not a judge. She feels guilty only for overly respecting the then political bigwigs. Brožová-Polednová still believes the process with Milada Horáková was just, albeit with a little too high sentence.
She would no longer issue a death sentence either for Horáková or anybody else. "Because there is no death sentence these days. I think it is right this way," said Polednová.
She herself was present at the death prosecution of Horáková and two other people. "I was sick, I could not watch it," confessed Polednová.
When asked if she remembers what Horáková was found guilty for, she answered she would have to search in the files. She admitted she no longer remembers the details.
Later in life Brožová-Polednová worked as a prosecutor in the town of Pilsen and Rokycany, about 20 kilometres west of Pilsen.
Find out more: Ex-prosecutor on trial for helping to stage one in 1950
Not time-barred
In 2007 Prague Municipal Court sentenced Brožová-Polednová to eight years in prison. But the High Court acquitted Polednová, arguing the criminal liability of the defendant was time-barred under the statute of limitations.
That was the same argument Polednová used at Pilsen´s court hearing as the main argument.
The defendant pointed out that prosecution did not bring any solid evidence against her. During the previous hearings the lawyer argued she was only in her first year at law faculty when the trial took place in 1950.
Nonetheless, the Supreme Court returned the case to the High Court. The former prosecutor won her appeal against the sentence of 8 years in prison with the High Court but the Supreme Court did not uphold her complaint. That is why the Prague High Court had to deal with the case again, which was forwarded to the High Court in Pilsen.
Read more: Czech ex-prosecutor not punished for judicial murder
