Conviction of 7 expected
NZPA-Reuter Prague Seven more Czechoslovak dissidents appear likely to be convicted of political crimes after the sentencing yesterday of the playwright, Vaclav Havel, to nine months in jail. The seven, whose trial began yesterday, include leading members of the Charter 77 human rights movement. The charges relate to demonstrations in January that were forcibly suppressed by police even as
Czechoslovakia was signing in Vienna new pledges on human rights. * Havel’s conviction for incitement and obstructing a public official was condemned by West Germany. Austria threatened to raise Czechoslovakia’s human rights record with other signatories to the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. Havel, aged 52, told the court in
his closing statement: “I do not feel guilty, therefore I have nothing to be sorry for and if I am punished I will accept my punishment as a sacrifice to a good cause.” Havel and the seven were arrested on January 16 when they sought to mark the twentieth anniversary of the suicide of Jan Palach, a student who set fire to himself in protest against the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.
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Press, 23 February 1989, Page 8
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186Conviction of 7 expected Press, 23 February 1989, Page 8
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