Prague, Oct 23 (CTK) – Jiri Brady, whose awarding on the October 28 national holiday, is a subject of dispute, and his wife Tereza confirmed yesterday that Prague Castle originally announced that he will be decorated with the T.G.Masaryk Order, when they arrived at the Ruzyne airport yesterday.
The national holiday remembers the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918.
Brady’s wife said the phone call was made on October 12 and the information about the decoration was clear.
Brady, 88, who survived the Terezin, north Bohemia, and Oswiecim (Auschwitz) Nazi camps, is an uncle of Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL).
Herman claims that President Milos Zeman said Brady will be decorated if Herman cancels his planned meeting with the Dalai Lama of Tibet, which he did not.
The Presidential Office, however, denies this.
Brady originally said the phone call was made on October 14. Yesterday, his wife corrected the information, adding she checked this on her mobile phone.
“We were announced that Mr Brady will be granted the T.G. Masaryk Order, that the ceremony is on October 28 and we also got details about how many people we can invite, when it will start and how it will proceed,” Tereza Bradyova said.
Brady added that they were asked for discretion, not to tell anyone about the award. No one has informed them that he will not be decorated, they learnt it from papers.
Bradyova said it is surprising that her husband should not get the award because of Herman’s meeting with the Dalai Lama.
“For us, the Czech Republic, which is our home, is a democratic country. That is why we could not imagine anything like this happening in a democratic country,” she said.
Bradyova said people should do something when there is injustice done somewhere.
“It was most annoying during World War Two that when we went to Terezin, Oswiecim, and so on, people were turning away. I thought the world is different yesterday,” Brady said.
Bradyova said though her husband has decorations from various countries, from Canada, Britain, Germany, the decoration granted by one’s own country is always the most important.
Brady said he might take part in the rally on the Old Town Square with which some politicians want to mark Odtober 28 as a counter-action to the celebration at Prague Castle.
Bradyova said she also asked Jindrich Forejt, head of the Prague Castle protocol, who communicated to them the information by phone, whether any information in writing will follow. He allegedly answered in the negative.
They were to learn the necessary details on Monday, October 24.
Brady was proposed for decoration in the past already. Then, no one phoned them, Bradyova said.
Forejt told CTK on Friday that he did not announce the decoration to anyone.
Herman repeated still before the arrival of Brady that Zeman told him that Brady will not receive the award if he does not cancel the meeting with the Dalai Lama.
“At the Slovak embassy on September 8 afternoon, the president told me that he has already approved my nomination, but if I meet the Dalai Lama, he will cancel it. This is what he directly told me. Two ministers of our government, one ambassador and I think the servicing personnel were present,” Herman said.
He showed to journalists a letter signed by Zeman’s chancellor Vratislav Mynar, confirming that Prague Castle will discuss Herman’s proposal. But the letter does not say, whether Brady will be decorated.
Herman also released yesterday an SMS, which he said he got from Forejt, who informs him that “the discussed proposal for granting the state decoration was postponed this year.”
Herman said he received the SMS on Thursday.
