Gott’s colleague also denies writing letter to Communist leader Husák

Ladislav Štaidl, who was alleged to have written and signed a letter with pop star Karel Gott to the general secretary of the Communist Party nearly 40 years ago, denied on Saturday ever having done such a thing. In the letter, published in the press two weeks ago, singer Karel Gott and his accompanists, the Štaidl brothers, seemingly plead for Communist leader Gustav Husák’s pardon, having spent too long in West Germany in 1971. In the letter, all of the signatories voice their support for the hard-line Normalization process which followed the Soviet-led invasion in 1968. When questioned about the letter, Karel Gott first said he may indeed have signed the document, but then dismissed the letter altogether as ‘utter nonsense’. On Saturday, his long-term colleague Ladislav Štaidl told Právo that he on no account wrote or signed such a letter.