Print Court proceedings on Czech actor’s collaboration with StB to be continued

Axis Information and Analisys

21.07.200606:47 (GMT) - 007 News

The lawsuit involving the known Czech actor Jan Kanyza and the country’s Interior Ministry concerning presence of his name in the official lists of the Communist State Security (StB) collaborators (StB) will be continued at the Supreme Court in Prague, news agency CTK reports. The ministry challenges the verdict of the Prague City court establishing that Kanyza is included in the lists without reason and his name should be scratched from the register. Three witnesses, the former StB employees were called to give their evidence at the city court and Kanyza said that he knew all of them. Although one of them told the court that Kanyza had signed a promissory note on the collaboration with the StB, the court found that there were too many contradictions in the damnatory evidence. According to the judge Hanna Lobotkova, the fact that the meetings between Kanyza and the secret service members took place in the StB headquarters is in favour of the actor as they cant be called secret. Also the alleged Kanyza’s cover name does not seem logical as it is identical to the actor’s real first name. Also it has appeared that the StB agents in their written reports did not reflect what was going on in reality, and they described the meetings with Kanyza in the way that was formally requested. The actor is written in the official lists of the StB collaborators and included in the StB’s unit responsible for the counteraction to external enemy.