Court rules former head of Communist Party must apologise to activist

A court has ruled that the former chairman of the Communist Party, Miroslav Grebenicek, must apologise to activist Jan Sinagl, whom he publicly insulted during a May Day rally in 2005. Mr Sinagl was protesting on the spot the Communist Party's traditional gathering: to this day many observers see the party as both unreformed and unapologetic for its past in Czechoslovakia. In the incident in 2005, Mr Grebenicek publicly called Mr Sinagl "a primitive" - a statement that the court on Thursday found encroached on the activist's rights. Following the ruling, Mr Grebenicek will have to cover all costs of the trial, as well as take out ads in two national newspapers to issue his apology.