Pavel Wonka is described as the last political prisoner of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, who died in prison. On April 5, 1988, he was detained for alleged violation of so-called protective supervision. He was to spend five months in prison. Wonka appealed against the decision, but under unclear circumstances, he died on April 26 of the same year.
Pavel Wonka’s brother Jiří sought a court decision on whether Pavel Wonka’s custody and prosecution were justified or not. Public prosecutor Vladimír Štěpánek agreed with Jiří Wonka’s proposal for the rehabilitation of his brother. According to him, deprivation of personal freedom of Pavel Wonka was illegal in April 1988. For Jiří Wonka, the court decision was not a surprise. Now, as a bereaved, he can ask the Czech Republic for compensation, but he refused.
Jiří Wonka is also seeking the reopening of the proceedings against Pavel Wonka in 1981 for alleged unauthorized intrusion into his mother-in-law’s apartment. At that time, the courts stopped the proceedings because of ineffectiveness, since Wonka was facing another case with a higher sentence. Jiří Wonka wants to achieve the statement that his brother was innocent of this matter as well.
Before November 1989, Pavel Wonka was persecuted for his opinions and activities and ended up in prison several times. He was convicted of fictitious deeds. The news of Wonka’s death caused outrage in the world. Last February, the Wonkas were given a certificate for the participants in the resistance against the Communist regime. In 2013, President Miloš Zeman awarded Pavel Wonka in memoriam with the Medal of Merit for the State in the field of national security and citizens.
