Court resumes treason proceedings against Czechoslovak’s Munich-era Prime Minister

He once proved his value while deriving the Czechoslovak corps from Russia in the aftermath of World War I, one of the heroes of the Czechoslovak state of World War I, modern Jan Zizka, Patch. Was considered to be. However, General Jan Syrovny will be embarrassed to die as a man convicted of working with Nazi occupiers before World War II.

His illustrious career began to be unveiled at the time of this speech, broadcast by Czechoslovak Radio on September 30, 1938.

“This is the most difficult moment in my life. I am doing the most painful work that is worse than death. We will meet the conditions forced by us. We are the country. And call on the people to overcome their resentment, disappointment, and suffering, and instead help secure our future within these new borders. “

Shirovi was nominated as the country’s prime minister eight days ago after the previous administration was forced to resign in a wave of mass protests against the ceding of territory to Germans. He remained a senior official until April 1939, when Czechoslovakia was already a protectorate under occupation.

Despite supporting resistance following the Gestapo, the general was immediately arrested in May 1945 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for treason in a subsequent trial. He died an unnamed man who had to subsidize his life by working as a security guard in a small Czech town.

But now, more than 50 years after his death, Jan Syrovny has the opportunity to reveal his name. The Prague High Court announced on Tuesday that his proceedings would resume after new facts that questioned the previous 1947 ruling were revealed. The court’s ruling follows years of efforts by the descendants of General Shirovi to reveal his name.

Lubomir Muller, defender of Jan Syrovny’s great nephew, told Czech Television that the original proceedings had been politicized. Indeed, some of the accusations, such as a gradual handshake with Adolf Hitler at Prague Castle in 1939, cannot withstand scrutiny according to defense. Many of the prosecution’s allegations say that it is unclear how the general should actually behave, given his position as a constitutional official.

In addition, the prosecutor in this case was Joseph Stalin, the equivalent of Stalin’s infamous prosecutor Andrey Vyshinsky in Czechoslovakia, who was later sentenced to death by a Show Trial of the Communist Party and democratic politicians such as Mirada Horakova. I decided to do it.

General Shirovi is not the only one to have a second chance of redemption. The successor to Prime Minister Rudolf Beran, who was head of government from December 1938 to April 1939, will also reconsider his case. After the war, Belan received the same sentence as Shirovi, but he never left prison alive. The judge chose to consider his case for similar reasons, noting that several witnesses gave testimony in support of his conduct.

This is not the first time a Czechoslovak hero has been accused of revisiting a case of turning into a villain. Attempts to rehabilitate him were canceled by the High Court in 1995, and so did last year. But with the court finally approving the defense’s allegations, the eyepatch general has more hope than ever before.