Former members of the State Security (StB) Jiří Karásek and Václav Sklenář were sentenced to two years with conditions and money for disbanding the band Prague Selection and were responsible for the ban on their public performances. The men made a plea deal with the prosecutor, which was approved by the court on Monday. The decision is final.
“The punishments are mild,” said Anežka Pudilová, the chairman of the criminal panel. However, due to other circumstances, the court does not consider them too lenient. The men were particularly helped by the time the case was had been waiting in court. According to the judge, they were also “against” what they had done. The men were at risk of up to ten years in prison for abuse of authority Along with the suspended sentence, Karásek must pay 18,000 crowns, Sklenář about 15,000 crowns.
According to the plaintiff, 75-year-old Karásek and Sklenář, who is six years younger, worked as the head and chief executive of the StB. They were responsible for monitoring people who spoke out against the communist system at the time. They also looked at the band Prague Selection and tried to spread it. For example, they put pressure on organizations not to allow her to continue to perform and create. Because of that, the musicians lost their artistic credentials and were not allowed to continue playing.
Group members Michael Kocáb, Michal Pavlíček and Vilém Čok also participated in today’s meeting. “The punishment does not correspond to the degree of guilt at all,” said Kocáb in the courtroom. According to him, satisfaction comes at the time when the emotions have already subsided. “People are gentlemen has ruined our youth a lot. We have never recovered from that,” said the Prague election activist.
Pavlíček and Čok also expressed themselves. “I couldn’t earn money. My parents had to support me for two years,” the bassist described the impact of the activities of the two former members of StB. Kocáb said that the group’s struggle might continue their size and if it wasn’t for the Velvet Revolution, that their members would be in prison.
The Prague Election performance was banned in 1983, allegedly as a concert in Hradec Králové, when the band allegedly sold unofficial posters, thus “a ‘illegal financial enrichment”, they introduced the band Trifidi as an opening act and played four instead. three concerts, which were not mentioned in a contract.
After three years of forced suspension, the Prague selection merged in 1986 under the name Selection. After 1989, the group performed sporadically, and held a larger number of concerts again just after 2000.
2024-09-23 09:20:40
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