News

A new sculpture has been unveiled at Prague’s Bubny train station in honour of the Jewish victims of Nazi transports forced to leave from there for concentration and death camps during WWII. Entitled Gate of No Return, the large work by sculptor Aleš Veselý consists of a section of track at a 45-degree angle as if leading to the skies. It is part of a Memorial of Silence being prepared at the Prague 7 station that organisers say is also intended to foster discussion on the legacy of the Holocaust.

The mother of two Czech boys who were taken into foster care in Norway in 2011 over allegations of sexual abuse, is to be allowed to see her children separately later this month. Eva Michalíková, who has been fighting a battle to see her children returned, on the grounds that no sexual abuse was proven and no charges were pressed, refused to reveal further details regarding the planned meeting, saying she did not want it disrupted by the media or used against her. Ms. Michalíková last saw her children, aged six and nine, a year ago.

The Czech government on Monday approved the sale of 15 of the army’s surplus light-combat fighter planes to Iraq for the price of 750 million crowns. The L-159 planes are to be delivered within two to three years. In line with Czech law, the deal is to be conducted via Aero Vodochody, the company which produced the planes. The Czech government acquired 72 of these planes from Aero Vodochody back in 1997, when the Czech Republic was not yet part of NATO, and army strategists believed a strong air force was a necessity. However the military put to use only 25 of the planes and had to mothball the remaining aircraft. Another fourteen planes were sold to the American firm Draken International for training purposes last year.

The Czech judiciary performs at the EU average, but should be more efficient in implementing computer and data systems, European Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová said on Monday reporting on the outcome of a comparative study of EU member states. The commissioner said that while the speed at which individual member states dealt with court cases varied, they all had a gender problem in the judiciary with fewer women serving as judges in high instance courts. The survey revealed that while a court case in Luxembourg takes on average 53 days, in the Czech Republic it takes 187 days and in Malta it drags for an average 750 days.