Commentary: IQ and fast-trackers

Former prosecutor Ludmila Brožová-Polednová, who in 1950 partook in the sentencing of National-Socialist politician Milada Horáková to death by hanging, doesn't feel culpable. In Thursday's Lidové noviny she said, „It was the time of the Cold War; lives were being lost on both sides.“ This is a strange argument for killing a person. She added, „Horáková admitted to having committed the crime of establishing anti-state groups. She was doing something she shouldn't have been doing.“

As we all know, Milada Horáková didn't establish any anti-state groups. In the courtroom, as in her civic life, she was simply standing up for her ideals, which were far removed from those of the Communists. And that's why she ended up being executed, something Brožová-Polednová defends with the words, „I believe that all those who were sentenced were engaged in anti-state activities, within the context of that time, activities aimed against us.“

More than half a century on, the colleague of infamous prosecutors like Josef Urválek, Juraj Vieska and Jiří Kopák is able to describe exactly what was going on at the time: making judgments based not on the law but on ready-made decisions that adhered to the party principle „either you are with us or against us.“ Or, as dissident poet Andrej Stankovic put it, „Anyone different is a swine.“

The Communist prosecutor also boasts in the interview that she had an „extremely high IQ“ and that's why the party selected her to…