The legal aspects of coming to terms with the crimes of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia
The legal aspects of coming to terms with the crimes of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia

Author(s): Pavel Gregor
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Criminal Law, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, History of Communism
Published by: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů
Summary/Abstract: In regard to the discussed issue of dealing with the communist regime in the former Czechoslovakia, particularly at the level of criminal law, it is impossible not to mention the Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism. I worked in this office from the end of 1995 until August last year, and I had been the head of the investigations department since 2000. Please allow me to first briefly mention the history of this institution. The Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism (hereinafter referred to as the ÚDV) was established thanks to the man who became its first director – the important (alas now deceased) dissident and philosopher PhDr. Václav Benda, who later became a senator. The office was established as of 1 January 1995 via the amalgamation of a police section with investigative powers, but only for the area covering the activity of the State Security (StB) service, which was incidentally defined in its name – the Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Activity of the StB and the Centre for the Documentation of the Illegality of the Communist Regime at the Ministry of Justice (originally the Coordination Centre for the Investigation of Violence against the Czech Nation in the Years 1945–1989 at the General Prosecutor’s Office).

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