Communist sentenced

last updated 8 January 2015

Prague

A former Czech Communist official who was appealing his four-year prison sentence for aiding the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia was slapped with a six-year sentence instead. Last year, Karel Hoffmann was found guilty of sabotage for ordering state radio and TV to cease broadcasting as Soviet tanks rolled into the country in 1968 to crush the “Prague Spring” socialist reform movement. Hoffmann’s order left most Czechs and Slovaks with no way of knowing what was happening. In his appeal, Hoffmann argued that his trial was politically motivated. The appeals court responded this week by adding two years to his sentence.