The World - News from March 10, 1989

Two Czechoslovak dissidents were sentenced to jail for sedition in organizing a petition demanding the release of political prisoners. Former rock band leader Ivan Jirous, who is also an art historian and a poet, was sentenced to 16 months in prison. The founder of the banned Plastic People of the Universe rock band, he has already spent eight years in prison on hooliganism charges that human rights activists say were politically motivated. Dissident Jiri Tichy was given a six-month sentence. The petition also called for an official explanation for the death in prison last year of another dissident, Pavel Wonka.