Court: Finance Ministry should consider Benes decree compensation

The Czech government has been ordered to consider compensating families who were stripped of their property by the so-called 'Benes decrees' in 1945. On Thursday, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that the Czech Ministry of Finance was wrong to turn down the Porkert family's case for compensation without considering it duly beforehand. The Porkert family once owned the Fotochema factory in East Bohemia, but it was nationalized by presidential decree following on from the Second World War. A spokesperson for the Czech Ministry of Finance said that the Ministry respected the verdict even though it differed from previous Supreme Court rulings, which went in favour of the government.