The whole trial was a theatre performance

Vladimír Hradec was arrested in 1953 for helping the Mašín brothers acquire weapons before their legendary escape to West Germany. After fifteen months of interrogations he was presented with a “script” for the trial which he was to learn by heart. His fellow prisoner, who had some experience, warned him not to change a single word in the “script”. At the most, he could express his regret at the end of the trial or – even better – stay silent. “During the trial, two people were saying some unnecessary things not included in the set programme and I think they had some trouble because of that later on.” The trial started on January 25th 1955. “I was asked questions exactly according to the protocol and I had to answer them according to the protocol as well. Before the trial had started, the interrogator took the protocol and asked me a few questions to make sure I knew it all by heart.” Vladimír Hradec sat in the second row during court; he was not one of the main defendants. In the end he was sentenced to 22 years in prison. He was sentenced for treason, military espionage (he revealed to the Mašín brothers that he underwent military training as a chemist) and for misappropriating state property (in August 1953 he helped Ctirad Mašín, Janata and Švéda steal one hundred kilograms of dynamite in the mine Kaňk near Kutná Hora). The sentence he received was not the worst one. “All those who sat in the row in front of me during the trial were sentenced to death.” In the same trial, the father and mother of Vladimír Hradec were sentenced to eighteen years of imprisonment and his brother to sixteen years. Such sentences were given for secondary participation – “they knew, but they didn’t tell”. The trial in the overcrowded judicial palace was a performance for invited guests only; the only family member that could attend was Hradec’s sister-in-law. His sister-in-law later recounted that the assembly hall was completely quiet and she had the impression that it was filled by the employees of ČKD Prague (an engineering company).