Police exhuming remains of one-time foreign minister Jan Masaryk

Police specialists are on Wednesday exhuming the remains of Jan Masaryk from the Masaryk family tomb at Lány near Prague. The move is part of efforts to ascertain how Masaryk, who was Czechoslovak minister of foreign affairs, met his death in March 1948.

His body was found dead beneath the window of his apartment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, only weeks after the Communist takeover of the country. The official version at the time was that Masaryk had committed suicide. However, the police’s Office for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism is exploring the possibility that he was murdered.