Former Czechoslovak Prime Minister Lubomir Strougal died Monday at the age of 98, CTK news agency reported based on information from the former prime minister’s family.
Strougal served as head of Czechoslovakia’s government from 1970 to 1988, the period following the August 1968 invasion by Warsaw Pact forces.
In recent years, the former Czechoslovak leader had faced charges related to the deaths of refugees at the hands of border guards along the so-called Iron Curtain.
Health experts considered at the time that the former prime minister was not fit to stand trial due to both his advanced age and his increasing dementia.
Before serving as prime minister, Strougal also held the Interior portfolio in the 1960s, a period in which he was at the center of a controversy over the use of electrified fences on the border with West Germany.
Following the peaceful protests in 1989 that led to the Communist Party’s loss of power, Strougal retired from politics and moved to the outskirts of the country near the Polish border.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
