Six survivors of the victims of the former regime, who were killed at the border, filed a constitutional complaint against the suspension of the trial of former Prime Minister Lubomir Otrogal. Their legal representative, Lubomír Müller, told the server iROZHLAS.cz. They do not like the “flaws” of expert opinion, according to which the ninety-seven-year-old Ottergal cannot be sued. “Despite his limitations, he understands the logic of criminal proceedings well and conducts a thoughtful defense,” the complaint reads.
Lubomír Štrugal in a 2012 photo. | Source: Profimedia
Štrugal’s trial was legally interrupted in mid-August by the Prague Prosecutor’s Office 1. Information about the decision was provided by the server Novinki. But the attorney general’s ruling was immediately challenged by a group of survivors, and they appealed their complaints to the Constitutional Court. “The Constitutional Court confirmed receipt of the complaint on Monday, August 29, 2022,” attorney Lubomir Muller told iROZHLAS.cz.
Holiday and hour to shoot an “intruder”. Stories from the frontier condemning trugal, Vajnar and Fojtík
Read the article
It follows from the text of the complaint that the problem lies with Mueller and that he will remain above all with the expert’s opinion on Otrugal’s health and the conclusions drawn by the plaintiff from it. According to experience, the ex-communist leader is able to understand “the meaning of criminal proceedings in a very general, formal and imprecise manner.”
But the six survivors refused this through their lawyers. “However, a detailed examination of the individual letters of the accused (having a legal education) shows that, despite his limitations, he understands the meaning of criminal proceedings well and makes a well-researched defence,” the complaint states. , text available to the iROZHLAS.cz server.
The prosecution was launched in 2019 by the Office of Documentation and Investigation of Communism Crimes. Otrogal blamed that nine people who tried to cross the Czechoslovak border were shot or shot at with dogs from March 1976 through the end of 1989, and at least seven others were injured. He will face up to ten years in prison for abuse of power. You can read some of the stories that testify against him over here.
priority considerations
“The accused knows exactly what position he held and for how long. The accused defends himself by saying that he himself cannot influence things, and that this is the “work of ministers”. So the accused’s attitude is good” Müller in the complaint.
“If, in the particular case, the law enforcement authorities resign from the trial of the accused, they will in effect accept his defense and the accused (supported by other supporters of the previous regime) will emerge “victorious” from the whole thing, despite the fact that for many years he was one of the prominent figures in the regime It was “criminal, illegal and reprehensible”.
Lubomir Muller (quote from the constitutional complaint)
According to him, it is therefore necessary for the investigators to respond to Otrogal’s defense. “For example, when he blamed the ministers, it must be noted that in the years 1961-1965 he himself was the Minister of the Interior,” Mueller notes.
According to him, the former head of the Czechoslovak communist government has long been trying to develop by indicating his subordination to a higher authority. According to the prosecutor, Otrogal claims to have been a member of the Warsaw Pact. “This is reminiscent of the usual defense of war criminals who claimed that they were only following the orders of their superiors,” the lawyer wrote in the complaint.
At the end of the document, Mueller requests that the decision to stop Otrugal’s trial be overturned and also – given his age – a priority hearing.
He believed that “the criminal prosecution must continue, especially given the necessity of refuting the defense of the accused in a proper judicial process, in a manner that is ‘educational’ for the whole of society.”
Trial of communist leaders
In addition to trugal, in 2019 the police also began prosecuting the former General Secretary of the Communist Party, Milos Jacques, the former Minister of the Interior, Vratislav Wagnar, and the party’s theoretician at the time, Jan Vojtic.
Jaksh’s trial was halted because he died two years ago. The Prosecutor must make a decision on the trial of Jan Votik in the coming weeks. But even in his case, experts came to the conclusion, similar to Otro’s, that because of dementia due to old age, he could not understand the meaning of criminal prosecution. On the other hand, the trial of former Minister Wagnar continues.
This year, the police also began the trial of the former Home Secretary, František Kinkel, in connection with the shootings of border guards at the border. But at the end of August, it dropped the prosecution and returned the case to the Institute for Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism for further examination.
