Bata demanding compensation for post-war seizure of property

Tomas Bata Jr. says he plans to demand compensation from the Czech state for the property confiscated from his family after World War II. Speaking to the website aktualne.cz, the Czech-born shoe magnate said the Bata family wanted compensation for the value of the property nationalised under the post-war Benes decrees. Mr Bata, who is 93, previously mentioned the possibility of demanding compensation when a Prague court reopened a case from 1947 in which his uncle Jan Antonin Bata was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison for collaboration. Recently the state attorney’s office cleared Jan Antonin Bata’s name, when it said no crime had been committed.