Former communist prosecutor, jailed for judicial murder, may soon walk free

Ludmila Brožová-Polednová, a former communist prosecutor who is serving a six year prison sentence for her role in helping to send democratic politician Milada Horáková to the gallows in a notorious 1950s show trial, may soon be released. It has now come to light that three presidential amnesties apply to her case, each lowering her sentence by two years.

Ludmila Brožová-Polednová, photo: CTK

The 88-year-old former communist prosecutor has become a symbol of the crimes committed by the communist regime in its most vicious period – the hardline 1950s. Only in her twenties at the time, she played an active role in sending an innocent woman to the gallows and, in a case which has just surfaced, even proposed a death sentence for a pregnant woman who was portrayed as an enemy of the state. When she was sentenced to 6 years in prison in 2008, those looking for justice rejoiced and the pity people may have felt for an ailing old woman in her circumstances was somewhat dampened by the fact that she entered jail completely unrepentant for her past.

The objective would thus be achieved without anyone bearing direct moral responsibility for letting the notorious communist prosecutor out. A court in Hradec Králové has confirmed that the said amnesties really apply to the case in question and a final ruling is now expected from the Supreme Court in Prague. If the verdict goes in Mrs. Brožová-Polednová’s favour then paradoxically the tables will have turned and the woman who says with undaunted pride that she was “part of a struggle against Western imperialists” would be able to sue the state for compensation for a year spent in jail.