Law 231/1948
The Law for the Protection of the People's Democratic Republic (Czech: Zákon na ochranu lidově democické republiky ), known under the name of the Law 231/1948 (Czech: Zákon 231/1948 Sb. ), Was adopted in Czechoslovakia, especially in the 1950s for the condemnation applied on political grounds.
The law gave the name to the club of former political prisoners K 231, founded in 1968 .
Background and story
Law 231/1948 played an essential role in building the totalitarian regime and in liquidating civil society in Czechoslovakia. After the February revolution of 1948, the communist judiciary first made use of older laws, such as the modified, similarly named Law 50/1923 (Law for the Protection of the Republic, Czech Zákon na ochranu republiky ). However, they were soon replaced by new ones - on October 6, 1948, Law 231/1948 was enacted, on July 12, 1950, the new Criminal Code followed in Law 86/1950, etc.
The law was rigorously applied against politically dissenters, especially in the show trials of the 1950s, but also in the later phases (1960s, after the crackdown on the Prague Spring , then during the period of so-called normalization ). Some of the offenses covered by the law could be punishable by the death penalty. Between the Communist takeover on February 25, 1948 and July 6, 1962, a total of 248 people were executed for political offenses - most of them under Law 231/1948. Most executions took place immediately after 1948 in the period in which the regime was constituted: 189 people were executed in the era of Klement Gottwald (President 1948–1953), after which their number fell: under Antonín Zápotocký (President 1953–1957) there were 47 people and under Antonín Novotný (President 1957–1968) then 12 people.
The number of those convicted was incomparably higher. In the 1960 amnesty, 5601 political prisoners were released, and in May 1962 a further 2520 people, but 2985 political prisoners remained. According to the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes , around 45,000 citizens were convicted in the years 1948–1954 under Laws 231/1948 and 86/1950. According to a documentation of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes ÚSTR , in the atmosphere of the show trials of the 1950s, the laws were applied arbitrarily and without evidence if necessary. This makes it difficult to deal with and classify the convicted and executed.
Subject of the law
The "Law for the Protection of the People's Democratic Republic" is considered a sweeping blow in the field of possible criminal offenses in which dissenting, critical citizens who did not agree with the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship could be involved. The paragraphs could be interpreted arbitrarily; in most cases, the crimes were constructed in such a way that the relevant paragraphs could be applied.
The first part dealt with crimes against the state:
- High treason (§ 1), sanctionable up to the death penalty
- It was a criminal offense to unite against the state, whereby the founding of an organization was not a requirement (§ 2)
- Incitement (§ 3) and denigration (§ 4) against the People's Republic with maximum sentences of up to five years in prison
A common application also gained espionage paragraph (§ 5), especially in the condemnation of the numerous members of the Czechoslovak armed forces in the West (in particular members of the Czechoslovak Squadron of the Royal Air Force ) in World War II .
Several paragraphs dealt with different penalties against the constitutional organs (i.e. members of the executive and legislative branches), be it acts of physical violence or riot and abuse of their office (Sections 14 to 22) as well as the offense of defamation and denigration of the President (Sections 23 and 24 ); It is striking that in § 25 the support for fascism followed immediately afterwards.
The frequently used section on sabotage (§§ 36ff.) Was followed by paragraphs on “illegal border crossing”, activities abroad directed against the state and the denigration of symbols and representatives of an allied state (§§ 40 - 42).
The final provisions of the law contain above all the regulation on the confiscation of the entire property of the convicted person including the apartment (§ 48), which often had insurmountable existential consequences for the family members; The professional ban (Section 51) as well as the loss of civil rights (Section 52) also had drastic effects. In paragraphs 60ff. the penalties were extended to periodicals, which could lead to their ban. Finally, because some offenses were linked to what happened in public, this was defined in Section 64: a public consisted of “several” people, with “more” being equated with two.
Remarks
- ↑ Due to the problem of the ongoing analysis of the archives of that time, other figures are also given, such as 241 people (see www.totalita.cz/.../popravy or 262 or 227 people (see ustrcr.cz/ ..) . ))
Individual evidence
- ↑ 231/1948 Sb., Online at: www.totalita.cz (PDF; 130 kB), Czech, www.upn.gov.sk (PDF; 186 kB), Slovak, accessed on November 29, 2011
- ↑ Zákon na ochranu republiky , Zákon 50/1923 Sb., Act 50/1923 of March 19, 1923, online at: beck-online.cz / ...
- ↑ a b Otakar Liška et al .: Vykonané tresty smrti Československo 1918-1989 , Sešit No. 2 (edition 2000), material from Úřad dokumentace a vyšetřování zločinů komunismu SKPV PČR (ÚDV, German Authority for Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism) , online at: policie.cz / ... , information on page 161
- ↑ A list of the totalita.cz server, online at www.totalita.cz/.../60_01 , accessed on November 29, 2011
- ^ A documentation about the K 231 club , online at www.ustrcr.cz/data / ... , in Czech, accessed on November 29, 2011
- ↑ a b Documentation of the ÚSTR Institute, online at: ustrcr.cz / ... (under renovation)