Former communist leader Lubomír Štrougal dies at 98

Former communist prime minister and minister of the interior Lubomír Štrougal has died at the age of  98, the CTK news agency reported. One of the symbols of Czechoslovakia’s “normalization” period,  Štrougal was a leading member of the ruling communist party for more than 30 years. He headed the federal government for close to two decades. A criminal complaint against Štrougal over the deaths of  91 people who were killed on the Iron Curtain trying to escape communist Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, was shelved on the grounds that he could no longer comprehend the charges against him.