WORLD : Czech Playwright’s Appeal Denied
PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia — A court today rejected an appeal to free dissident playwright Vaclav Havel, but the judge reduced one charge and trimmed his nine-month jail term by a month.
The decision concerning Havel, convicted and jailed in connection with a protest in January, was greeted with cries of “Shame!†and “Release him!†from a crowd of about 150 supporters who jammed a corridor outside the courtroom. Havel’s fellow Charter 77 activist Vaclav Maly, allowed into the courtroom to translate for an Austrian legal expert, termed the verdict “prefabricated.â€
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