It was a spectacular sight at the High Court in Pankrác, Prague 4, where, under the watchful eyes of dozens of armed prison guards and police SWAT team members, the criminal trial of David Berdych and 30 members of his infamous gang got under way Feb. 1.

Because of the number of defendants, plus their armed escorts, the authorities were forced to move the trial to the country's largest courtroom. Once the setting of Communist Party show trials in the early 1950s, this room was where a kangaroo court found Parliament member Milada Horáková guilty of fabricated treason charges for which she was sentenced to the gallows.

The evidence and charges this time around, in what is the largest trial in Czech history, are very real.

These include abductions and the torture of a number of businessmen, including the murder of at least one, and charges of theft of cash and goods worth millions of crowns: antiques, gold and other property.

"The case has been documented on 50,000 pages," said Judge Petr Franc, who will preside over the trial. It took prosecutors longer than three hours to read aloud most of the charges.

"During the trial, over 100 witnesses are expected to testify, including five who are to do so in anonymity under the witness protection program," said prosecutor Tomáš Milec.

Apart from the number of defendants, what makes the scope of the Berdych gang trial so massive is that the gang is alleged to have received direct assistance from police detectives Jiří Žofčín, Petr Koňařík, Jiří Kaňka and Josef Opava of the Prague anti-organized crime bureau.

Although the Czech Republic is no stranger to police corruption, the case of the Berdych gang is different because the detectives are accused of far more than accepting money for turning a blind eye. They are charged with providing gang members with information on potential victims, police uniforms, weapons and ammunition, identification badges and falsified search warrants that allowed gang members to enter victims' homes and places of business posing as law enforcement officers.

The detectives are also accused of helping to cover the gang's tracks by tampering with evidence, including arranging for the attempted murder of one police informant who had information on an abduction case.

"My client maintains he is innocent," said Josef Doucha, defense attorney for Koňařík. Doucha, himself a former senior-ranking police official, left the service in the early 1990s and has earned a reputation for maintaining close ties to organized crime elements — be they domestic or foreign.

As it stands, Doucha will have difficulty explaining how his client financed a mansion in an affluent Prague suburb on a police detective's salary.

The extent of police involvement in the crimes epitomizes the difficulty many in this country have in distinguishing between police and gangsters.

When details of the police involvement became known, calls for the resignation of then Police President Jiří Kolář intensified. Kolář did not resign until last summer, following public scrutiny and embarrassment in the wake of the escape of billionaire fraud and contract-killing suspect Radovan Krečíř during a police search of his house last June.

The allegations of corruption within the ranks of Prague's organized crime division have proved that warnings by the National Organized Crime Police Force, which opposed the creation of an independent Prague division, were well-founded.

It's believed the Berdych gang began its spree in 1996, but by 2000 luck had begun to turn against it when one member, Ladislav Cyrus, was recognized by investigators while trying to withdraw 14 million Kč from an abducted businessman's bank account.

Cyrus was captured and went on to expose various elements of the gang network. He is currently serving a prison sentence.

What made it difficult for police to apprehend the rest was that, apart from leader David Berdych, members referred to one another with nicknames.

Police believe they caught the last 11 members of the gang at the end of January. The men are currently being investigated and interrogated and will face trial in several months.

Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that, following further interrogation, the 11 men may disclose additional names and details.

Another three known gang members remain at large, but authorities are powerless, since the two whose whereabouts are known reside in Ireland. Although the Czech Republic became a signatory of the European arrest warrant last year, it has not enabled the country to extradite the suspects as the crime was committed too far prior to the treaty.

The trial is expected to run until late April, but the courtroom will be closed to the public during the testimony of some secret witnesses, a common practice in Czech criminal trials. Also during the closed-door sessions, entrepreneur Luděk Žalud and police officers Opava and Koňařík will testify on material the state considers classified information.

Meanwhile, the investigation continues and more arrests may follow.