Zeman bestows high state honours on 29 people

President Miloš Zeman has decided to bestow high state honours on 29 people, his office announced on Thursday evening. Normally the head of state hands out honours on October 28, though with Mr. Zeman currently in hospital the event has been postponed until January 1.

Five people are to receive the highest Czech honour, the Order of the White Lion, including actress Jiřina Bohdalová and cosmonaut and former ambassador to Russia, Vladimír Remek. The medal will go in memoriam to businessman Petr Kellner, WWII pilot Alexander Hess and UK politician Alfred Duff Cooper, who resigned in protest at the Munich Agreement.

Mr. Zeman decided to award the Order of T.G. Masaryk to Karel Raška, the founder of modern Czechoslovak epidemiology, and the Medal for Heroism to the Czech ambassador to Afghanistan, Jiří Baloun, and a military police chief in the country, Zdeněk Poul.

The traditional October 28 ceremony was also cancelled last year, due to the Covid situation.