Bělobrádek: Top Communists should face justice for pre-1989 killings on border

Former senior Communists such as one-time party general secretary Milouš Jakeš and prime minister Lubomír Štrougal should face justice for the deaths of people killed trying to cross the Iron Curtain from Czechoslovakia to the West, says deputy prime minister Pavel Bělobrádek. The chairman of the Christian Democrats said they had committed crimes against humanity that were not bound by a statute of limitations. Mr. Bělobrádek made the comments in the lower house, where he was supporting the Platform of European Memory and Conscience, a group that pushes for the punishment of perpetrators of communist-era crimes.