A slapping labourer from ČKD

A former labourer of ČKD, Jaroslav Řičica, “politically oriented” himself, so to speak, in 1947. He entered the Communist Party and at his own request became an interrogating officer at OBZ (a military intelligence service). He also worked in the interrogation room next to the Domeček (Little house) of Loreta. The first case assigned to him was the case of Sedláček. “That’s rubbish! I didn’t beat him at all, he’s lying,” Řičica states in defending himself against the accusation that he slapped prisoners and beat them with a truncheon. In the interrogation room he was apparently only writing down what Sedláček was dictating. However, he does not remember what crime this soldier had committed. After a few minutes of the interview, he explains that at the time he was mostly interrogating desertion abroad, unlawful possession of firearms, and jeopardy of state secrets. He did not consider the communist era as totalitarian, but admits that the things described by former prisoners are probably true. He knew about the methods of his colleagues, but he himself supposedly did not physically abuse prisoners. Apparently he knew the former commander of the Domeček, Pergl, who was later convicted, only from his “time on duty”. He is not sorry for anything and claims a loss of memory. After 1989, he was investigated but during his interrogation at the Office for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism, it sufficed for him to repeat that he simply does not remember anything. His case did not go to court.