Supreme Court overturns libel judgment award for Václav Havel’s widow

The Supreme Court in Brno has overturned a libel judgment awarding Václav Havel's widow 4 million crowns in compensation for a slanderous magazine article. In March 2012, the Bauer Group tabloid Pestrý svět claimed Dagmar Havlová had started an affair before the former president died, months earlier, after a long illness.

The Supreme Court ruled that the amount Ms Havlová was to receive exceeded compensation in comparable cases of libel. The higher court in Prague must now determine the level of compensation, initially set at 1.2 million crowns by a lower court.