Jihlava, South Moravia, Aug 2 (CTK) – Several dozen relatives and acquaintances of the political prisoners executed in the prison of the Regional Court in Jihlava in 1950-1952 commemorated them in this town yesterday.
They also recalled sculptor Jaroslav Slezinger who died in a communist jail 60 years ago. He created an above life-size statue of first Czechoslovak president Tomas Garrigue Masaryk (1918-1935) that was erected outside the grammar school in Jihlava.
Yesterday’s commemorative event, co-organised by the Confederation of Political Prisoners, primarily focused on the victims to communist show trials in Jihlava in the 1950s.
The organisers say more people used to attend these events in the past. They started organising them after the collapse of the communist regime.
“However, this is caused by the fact that the witnesses of these trials are gradually dying out,” Jihlava Town Hall spokesman Radek Tulis told CTK.
In February 1950, for instance, a political trial of 23 men started with the Jihlava court. They were convicted of high treason and espionage.
Karel Vesely, Jan Tucek and Frantisek Roda were sentenced to death and executed on June 17, 1950. Two men were sentenced for life. The others were sent to prison for four to 25 years. In addition, they were given high fines, their property was confiscated and they were stripped of civil rights.
Eleven men were hanged on the yard of the Jihlava Regional Court in 1950-1952. Seven of them were convicted in the “Babice trial.”
The case served the communists as a pretext to crack down on the Church. It was stirred up by the murder of three Communist party officials in Babice, south Moravia, in summer 1951, of which the communist secret police StB accused an alleged anti-state group directed from abroad, linked to the Catholic Church. Dozens of people were arrested, many were given tough sentences, including death penalties.
The case has never been entirely cleared up. According to historians, it was masterminded and staged by the StB.
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