Former communist-era top official not to be charged with Iron Curtain deaths

Former communist-era prime minister Lubomír Štrougal will not face criminal proceedings over the deaths of 91 people who died on the Iron Curtain trying to escape Communist Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. A criminal complaint against the former communist leader has been shelved on the grounds that the statute of limitations in the case has long expired.

Lubomír Štrougal, photo: Luděk Kovář, CC BY-SA 3.0

Lubomír Štrougal, one of the highest ranking communist-era officials still alive today, has once again escaped the arm of the law. Three previous trials in which he was charged with abuse of office, for instance in preventing an investigation into crimes committed by the communist secret service, saw him walk free due to lack of evidence and a fourth attempt to charge him with accountability for the deaths of 91 people who died on a barbed wire electric fence trying to cross the Iron Curtain in the 1960s has failed on the grounds that the statute of limitations on the case has long expired.

Jan Srb, spokesman for the Office of the Documentation and Investigation of Crimes of Communism explained why the criminal complaint filed against Mr. Štrougal six years ago had to be closed.

“We were unable to find direct evidence that Mr. Štrougal was informed about the deaths on the electric fence. We found a report, a copy of which was reportedly sent to the interior ministry, which Mr. Štrougal headed between 1961 and 1965, but we have no proof that he actually saw the report. Consequently, we could only file charges of negligence on which there is a five year statute of limitations starting from the fall of communism. Had we managed to produce stronger evidence it could have been classified as abuse of office on which there is no statute of limitations.”

The ninety-one-year-old Lubomír Štrougal, who has remained close-lipped on the issue, refused to comment on the outcome of the case. Historians say it is now practically certain that none of the former top brass will be held accountable for several hundred Iron Curtain deaths between 1948 and 1989. The communists started building the Iron Curtain in 1951 and between 1952 and 1957 the space between the fences was mined. In 1952 the last fence was electrified and remained so until the mid-1960s.

Photo: Jan Rosenauer, Czech Radio

In the course of that time hundreds of people risked their lives to flee to freedom and 300 of them were killed in the process. 143 people were shot dead by border guards, 91 died on the electric fence, two were blown up after stepping on a mine. Jan Srb from the Office of Documentation and Investigation of Crimes of Communism says it is unlikely anyone else will be held accountable for these crimes.

“In 1995 we collected evidence against general Ludvík Hlavačka who was head of border security and whose idea it was to install the electric fence. There would have been plenty of evidence against him but the case was closed for health reasons and he died shortly after. So no one has been held accountable for the deaths on the electric fence. Several border guards were found guilty of shooting people, but altogether I would say there were less than ten such cases.”