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BOX-FOLDER-REPORT: 16-5-97
TITLE:             An Appraisal of the Barak Trial
BY:                Hajek and Niznansky
DATE:              1962-4-24
COUNTRY:           Czechoslovakia
ORIGINAL SUBJECT:  Czechoslovak Research and Evaluation

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X-230-CURT - AN APPRAISAL OF THE BARAK TRIAL	F-107

Munich, April 24, 1962 (Czechoslovak Research and
Evaluation - Hajek and Niznansky) -- Without any preliminaries
Czechoslovak radio stations announced in their first evening
news on April 20 that a Higher Military Court in Prague, sitting
between April 17 and 20, had sentenced Rudolf Barak to 15
years imprisonment. Of his alleged accomplices in the Mini;3try
of Interior, his private secretary Vlastimii Jenys received 10
years, Jiri Ondracek 3 years and Jiri Soucek 10 months,
conditionally suspended for 3 years.

This rather dry statement was amplified a couple of
hours later by a specification of crimes allegedly committed by
Barak and his associates. It appears from this second news
release that Barak, while Minister' of Interior and particularly
in the years 1960 and 1961, misappropriated both foreign and
domestic currency for his own and his family's personal use. The
chief military prosecutor charged him with having used funds
slated for the tasks' of the Ministry of Interior for purchases
of consumer goods in capitalist countries, for financing
recreation trips of members of his family and for buying works of art,
in. particular paintings. By his criminal activities Barak reportedly
"undermined and rendered impossible the proper performance of the
Ministry of Interior in some sectors and seriously jeopardized
the security of our state and national economy".

In the course of the trial it was "conclusively proven"
that Barak was a greedy character, an intriguer and political
adventurer whose criminal activities were motivated by
megalomania and a striving for a comfortable life. The proceedings also
revealed, the official statement continued, the faults of his
character, petty-bourgeois mentality and careerism. Under the
load of evidence and testimonies by witnesses, Barak reportedly
admitted his crimes. He "failed to present anything to his
defense which would mitigate his guilt."

After the ominous statement of Novotny in Bratislava
on February 22 that Barak had aimed at seizing political power
was deleted from both the subsequent CETEKA release and from
the text of the speech as published in "Rude Pravo", the nature
of the charges and the sentence do not come as a surprise.
It may be recalled that the few references to Barak which appeared
in official media lately referred to him only as a corrupt element
intent on personal enrichment. Perhaps taking heed of the softer
political winds blowing from Moscow and possible from some
dissension within the CSCP the court adopted a cautious line on the

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X/230 - CURT- (1) - AN APPRAISAL OF THE BARAK TRIAL F-108

potentially explosive affair and left the political aspect in the
background. Depicting Barak primarily as a high-placed thief,
the court, judging by information available thus far, did not
even exploit the passage continued in the interim Prosecution
report that Barak "revealed information on a number of important
measures of both an official and political character."

The originally inflated political affairs was, in fact,
deflated to mere charges of misappropriation of state funds. All,
the rest are only "psychological explanations", comments on Barak s
character, rather than punishable criminal acts. For his purported
financial machinations Barak drew the maximum possible
sentence - 15 years of imprisonment plus confiscation of property, forfeiture
of honorary titles, awards and military rank. If compared to
the charges advanced, this sentence is inordinately high and strongly
suggests the underlying political motivation of the whole trial.
Some sentences contained in the official release are
propagandistically exaggerated and even downrights comical. Should Barak s
thievery really have endangered the Czechoslovak economy as
claimed, he would have had to accumulate a capital at least
comparable to that of a capitalist magnate of the Onassis class.
The "recreation trips" of the Barak family which are now held
against him probably refer to the privately reported journeys
of Mrs. Barak and the two sons to Western countries, e.g. the
Olympic games in Rome. If expenses involved in such excursions
threaten the Czechoslovak economy, its foundations must be shaky
indeed. Rudolf Barak was also known as a supporter of modern
art and actually may have acquired paintings; this is now
being held against him in an artificially exaggerated manner. At
any rate there seems to be no doubt that other top-level politicians
in Czechoslovakia would have to face trail should the official
charges against Barak serve as a precedent.

There is another indication of the substantive weakness
of the whole indictment. If the evidence were really tight
and conclusive, the regime would undoubtedly have chosen a public
trail. The fact that the closed military tribunal was appointed
to handle the affair is, in itself, an indirect admission of the
juridical weakness of the case. Although Barak, in his capacity
of Minister of Interior, also commanded armed units, he was
not a military person; both in view of his office and of the
charges preferred he should have been tried a civilian court of
justice,

An interesting roundabout admission of Barak's popularity
is contained in the official communiqué: it states that he
"ostentatiously popularized his person, stressed his supposed merits

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X/230 - CURT - (2) - AN APPRAISAL OF THE BARAK TRIAL F-109

and pretended a devotion to the cause of socialism." The regime
felt it necessary to include this remark to "explain" its course
of action particularly to the younger cadres of the Party
among which Barak was the most popular politician.

Vlastimil Jenys, Barak's private secretary, allegedly
assisted in the criminal activities of his master, especially
as far as his "machinations with foreign currency" were concerned;
Jiri Ondracek, another former official of the Ministry of Interior,
reportedly supplied Barak with consumer goods bought in Western
countries. He seems to be identical with a former Legation
Secretary stationed in Vienna some years ago. Jiri Soucek
received a suspended sentence for having attempted to cover up
Barak's criminal activities at the last minute.

Novotny's attempt to liquidate his potential rival
Rudolf Barak once for all seems to have misfired. The
constellation prevailing in the bloc (and at home?) after the 22nd
Congress prevented him from arranging a political show trial of
the first magnitude. In any case he was compelled to adopt a
compromise and level mere charges of corruption against his
principal opponent. The net result of the whole affair may be
that a very considerable part of the Czechoslovak Communist
membership will regard Barak as something of a martyr sentenced on
trumped-up charges. Moreover, and even more importantly for

Novotny, the recent history of international Communism provides
some examples of martyrs occasionally returning from banishment
to top positions of power to the detriment of their persecutors.

mi/2021

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