Psychiatrist Cyril Höschl to receive this year's Arnošt Lustig Award

This year's Arnošt Lustig Award, founded in honour of the late Czech writer by the Czech-Israeli Chamber of Commerce, will go to psychiatrist Cyril Höschl. The award is given every year to a living Czech citizen who displays exceptional courage, bravery, humanity and justice. Jan Pirk, chairman of the awards committee, said that Höschl more than fulfilled all four of these criteria.

Cyril Höschl headed the research institute which became the National Institute for Mental Health for three decades and helped to develop and popularise psychiatry in the Czech Republic. After 1968, he helped dissidents to avoid prosecution by the communist secret police by giving them fake diagnoses so they could be placed in psychiatric wards.

The Arnošt Lustig prize was created in 2011 in honour of the famous Czech Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor who died that year. Previous winners have included Prague bishop Václav Malý and Šimon Pánek, a prominent student leader during the Velvet Revolution and co-founder of the charity People in Need.