Woman involved in 1950s Milada Horáková show trial sentenced to 6 years in prison

Ludmila Brožová-Polednová, an eighty-seven year-old woman from Plzeň has been sentenced to six years in prison for her involvement in the capital murder of post-War dissident Milada Horáková. Ms Horáková was an anti-Nazi resistance fighter, parliamentarian and also an anti-communist in the post war period of Czechoslovakia. She was arrested on trumped up charges by the communist authorities in 1949 and executed less than a year later. Ms Brožová-Polednová acted as prosecutor in that trial and was sentenced in 2007 to eight years imprisonment – although this was subsequently overturned on appeal. Now, in what is likely to be the final chapter in this saga, following a ruling that Ms Brožová-Polednová’s alleged crime has not in fact exceeded the statute of limitations, she faced a fresh trial and appeared in court today for the first time ever. Ms Brožová-Polednová has not denied the charges, but denies direct culpability, although she has stated that she is prepared to go to jail if convicted.