Judicial murderer jailed for six years

A former communist prosecutor has become the oldest female inmate in the country.

On March 19, 87-year-old Plzeň resident Ludmila Brožová-Polednová was admitted to the Plzeň-Bory prison to serve a six-year prison term for participating in the 1950 judicial murder of lawyer and politician Milada Horáková, the only woman to be executed amid the Soviet-directed political purges in 1950s Czechoslovakia.

An opponent of communism, Horáková and three others received death sentences in an orchestrated  and highly publicized political trial. Merely a first-year law student, then-28-year-old Brožová-Polednová was included in the five-member team of prosecutors for her oratory skills and successes in past political processes.

Historic records show she used emotional tirades and traditional communist rhetoric to portray Horáková and her associates as traitors and spies, and acted mockingly and inappropriately during the hangings, which she willingly attended.

Last September, Brožová-Polednová was sentenced to six-year imprisonment by the Prague High Court, which later refused her request to postpone the sentence due to poor health.

The decision is final in a drawn-out series of rulings and appeals. Brožová-Polednová had pleaded not guilty to the judicial murder charge, claiming that she did not know Horáková's trial was manipulated.

"She was the last person they would ever allow to see the background of the whole process," said her lawyer Vladimír Kovář, adding that he plans to file a constitutional complaint.

After her admission to the Plzeň-Bory prison, Brožová-Polednová was transported to Prague's Pankrác prison for medical examinations, which prison service spokeswoman Markéta Prunerová said were running smoothly.

She suffers from partial blindness, but expert analyses state she is capable of serving her sentence under special conditions at a ward for elderly women at Světlá nad Sázavou.

Those marked by the political processes of the 1950s view her imprisonment as a necessary step in the country's reckoning with its communist past. Asked whether it made sense to place an 87-year-old woman behind bars, Confederation of Political Prisoners board member Milan Nerad responded:

"The communists locked up people older than her. Even if she only has to stay there for a year, it's worth it."

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at
features@praguepost.com