The last chief of the communist Czechoslovak secret police (StB), General Alojz Lorenc, is to stand trial before a Slovak military court.
Published:
5 June 2000 y., Monday
More than 10 years after the StB was dissolved, Lorenc will face charges of being responsible for the arrests of some 300 dissidents and opponents of the totalitarian regime in 1988-89, as well as destroying a large number of secret documents. Lorenc, accused of abuse of power after the fall of the communist regime and sentenced to four years in prison in October 1992, took advantage of the division of the former Czechoslovakia after the sentence was confirmed on appeal in May 1993 to take refuge in Bratislava, capital of newly-independent Slovakia.
In 1994 the Czech police were refused leave by Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant due to the "political nature" of the matter and from 1995 to 1998 Lorenc benefited from a judicial void preventing his extradition to the Czech Republic.
Only in May 1999 several months after the new government of Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda took power did Slovakia say it was prepared to move against him. In his defence, Lorenc said: "In line with my job, I took certain responsibilities, and under the law I was bound to carry them out."
Šaltinis:
Tasr news agency
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
A famous New York church is feeling Wall Street's pain.
more »
Japan may be in recession, but Tokyo remains the world's best dining city.
more »
The Netherlands may be famous for its liberal drugs laws but in the Dutch town of Bergen Op Zoom they've had enough.
more »
A European Commission report published today shows that mobile workers from the countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 have had a positive impact on Member States' economies and have not led to serious disturbances on their labour markets.
more »
South Korean stores must by law charge shoppers for plastic bags. Any infrigement would be reported to the authorities.
more »
Shi Sanba is one of China's most celebrated plastic surgeon's and also dubbed the country's "Michael Jackson".
more »
The job of elected Members of any Parliament is to make laws that all of us are obliged to obey.
more »
In Spain thousands have been queuing for days in the hope of gaining that crucial first step onto the property ladder.
more »
Scores of sheep have been shepherded through Paris as part of a demonstration to improve the lives of European farmers.
more »
Animal rights groups say animals are suffering from abuse and sometimes live in dire conditions.
more »