Top Communist on trial for radio sabotage

The trial of a key figure from the Czechoslovak communist regime, Karel Hoffmann, has been taking place in Prague since January 15. Mr Hoffmann is accused of treason for ordering the interruption of Czechoslovak Radio broadcasts in August 1968, when Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia. But the trial was postponed indefinitely on Tuesday after Mr Hoffmann's defence lawyer accused the judge of bias.

Top Communist on trial for radio sabotage

Karel Hoffmann, photo: CTK

This was what Czechoslovak Radio sounded like when Warsaw Pact forces entered Czechoslovakia on the night of August 20 and 21, 1968, crushing the Prague Spring. As the Warsaw Pact troops started shooting in an attempt to seize the national radio station, the Czechoslovak reformist leadership wanted their anti-aggression declaration to be read on the radio. But the broadcast was interrupted and replaced with music.

Now, 35 years later, the trial of Karel Hoffman - the man accused of ordering that intervention - is finally under way. Mr Hoffmann, who is now 78, was the head of the central communications authority at the time and a high-ranking official of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. He has been charged with treason and sabotage for ordering the interruption of the radio service while the anti-aggression proclamation was being read.

According to the state attorney's office, Mr Hoffmann made the order so that Czechoslovakia's citizens would not know the truth about the invasion: those Czech communists loyal to the Soviet Union knew that if the declaration was broadcast, it would be harder to justify Moscow's establishment of a puppet-government in Prague to the Czechoslovak public.

Karel Hoffmann, photo: CTK

Historical records indicate that Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was relying on Mr Hoffman to disrupt the radio service. In a meeting in Moscow on August 18, 1968, Mr Brezhnev informed the representatives of Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and East Germany of his decision to invade Czechoslovakia. He also told them that one of their most reliable figures in Prague would cut off the radio and television services; at that time, the radio was the most important medium.

Mr Hoffman has said that he is not guilty and has not committed any crime. He maintains instead that his trial is a political one and that he is being prosecuted not for the crime of treason, but for his "devotion to socialism." He occupied many other important posts during the communist period, serving as general director of Czechoslovak Radio and as a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee presidium from 1971 to November 1989.

On Tuesday Mr Hoffmann's trial was adjourned after his defence lawyer accused the judge in Prague's Municipal Court of political bias. The trial also faces other difficulties, a number of which are common to other cases related to the crimes of the former communist regime. Many key witnesses are ageing or have died, which means that important testaments cannot be made. In addition, the challenge of gathering evidence for crimes that happened decades ago is often insurmountable, and the Czech courts have had to postpone or reject some of these cases due to a lack of evidence.