Case of Czechoslovak PMs sentenced for collaborating with Nazis to be reopened

The cases of the head of the Czechoslovak government during the Munich Crisis, General Jan Syrový, and of his successor Rudolf Beran are to be reopened, the advocate of General Syrovy’s great-great-nephew told Czech Television on Tuesday. The High Court in Prague has canceled the previous rulling from 1947, according to which both Syrovy and Beran were sentenced to 20 years in prison for collaborating with the Nazis. A court representative told Czech Television that a newly discovered fact relating to the case, which could alter the rulling, has been discovered.

General Jan Syrový was a Czechoslovak Legionary during the First World War and one of Czechoslovakia’s most renowned soldiers during the interwar era. He spent 14 years in prison after the Second World War before being released in 1960 as a result of an amnesty. His family has been trying to rehabilitate him. Rudolf Beran died in Leopoldov Prison in 1954.