Vladimír Hučín

Vladimír Hučín (May 25 1952 in Gottwaldov (Zlín), Czechoslovakia) is a Czech political celebrity and one time dissident.

In the 1970's and 80's he used explosives to destroy various propaganda symbols of communism and distributed anti-communist leaflets; he got caught and was tried four times, received various forms of punishment including imprisonment; he served a grand total of 40 months in prison. After his release from prison in 1987 he signed the Charter 77 proclamation.

After the so called Velvet revolution of 1989 he was nominated by the Confederation of Political Prisoners to work at the Security Information Service (BIS), a Czech intelligence agency.

In 2001 he was fired from BIS and soon after that arrested and imprisoned on unsubstantiated charges. He effectively became a political prisoner of the allegedly democratic regime of the president Václav Havel and government of the Czech Social Democratic Party. He was held in prison for a year without being charged, with having to spend a portion of that time in a psychiatric hospital. In spite of numerous requests the then-president Havel refused to look into the matter and grant him clemency, even though Havel was well-known for his extensive use of clemency while in office. Similarly several petitions to the Czech Senate went unheeded.

Hučín's trial ran for five years without public being admitted into the court room (on pretense that the court was dealing with classified materials) and on one occasion even being ejected by force from the court house. In November 2005 he was acquitted of all charges, an appellate court confirmed the verdict on April 21. 2006 in Olomouc. There was no compensation or even an apology coming to Vladimir Hučín from the Czech Republic for his wrongful imprisonment.

Vladimír Hučín tried unsuccesfully for a seat in the Senate in 2006 and is trying again in 2008 (elections will be held 17. and 18. October).

External links

* [http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2008/03/19/the-man-who-knows-too-much.php| The man who knows too much – Hučín wants to make foes "hot under the collar" in Senate race] , by Markéta Hulpachová, The Prague Post, March 19th, 2008
* [http://www.hucin.info/ Vladimír Hučín]
* [http://www.vladimirhucin.cz/ vladimirhucin.cz]