JUDr Josef Urválek was a procurator

Public procurator

A public procurator is an officer of a state charged with both the investigation and prosecution of crime. The office is a feature of a civil law inquisitorial rather than common law adversarial system of law and is usually found in current or former communist states...

 and later judge

Judge

A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

 of the Czechoslovak state court. He is known for his participation in the political processes in socialist Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

 during the 1950s. In a number of show trial

Show trial

The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...

s, he was responsible for securing the death sentences of Milada Horáková

Milada Horáková

Dr. Milada Horáková was a Czech politician executed by Communists on charges of conspiracy and treason.- Biography :...

 and of 14 communist functionaries, including Rudolf Slánský

Rudolf Slánský

Rudolf Slánský was a Czech Communist politician. Holding the post of the party's General Secretary after World War II, he was one of the leading creators and organizers of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia...

, on trumped-up charges of treason

Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

.

When cross-examining

Cross-examination

In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness called by one's opponent. It is preceded by direct examination and may be followed by a redirect .- Variations by Jurisdiction :In...

 the accused, he would frequently interrupt them, make intolerant remarks, and compare them to insects and the worst human waste. At Slánský's trial, he said in his final speech "I demand the death sentence for all accused. Let justice smash like an iron fist, without the slightest pity. Let it be the fire that shall burn out this nest of enemies."

After the trials he rose within the party ranks, being made leader of the highest court in 1957. He retired from this post in 1963 to join the Výzkumný Ústav Kriminalistiky in the general prosecution. He died in 1979.

This article is based on a translation of an article from the Czech Wikipedia

Czech Wikipedia

Czech Wikipedia is the Czech language edition of Wikipedia.It was created in November 2002 on a request of a Czech editor of the Esperanto Wikipedia. However, at that time, Wikipedia ran on UseMod software. The three pages the Czech version had at the time were lost during the switch to MediaWiki...

.

See also

• Roland Freisler
  Roland Freisler
  Roland Freisler was a prominent and notorious Nazi lawyer and judge. He was State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice and President of the People's Court , which was set up outside constitutional authority...