Five Czech Jazz Players Guilty, Get Jail Terms

Five members of the banned Jazz Section, a group promoting free expression in Czechoslovakia, were convicted today of “economic crimes” for illegally profiting from publishing books and promoting modern music and were given sentences ranging up to 16 months in jail.

The members of the Musicians Union’s Jazz Section had faced a maximum of eight years in jail in the East Bloc nation’s largest political trial in nearly eight years.

The three-member judging panel said the group continued to conduct commercial activities, such as publishing books, after it was dissolved by order of the Interior Ministry on Oct. 22, 1984. The panel said the group made the U.S. equivalent of $170,000 during the period it operated illegally.

Defense attorneys said the Jazz Section always operated in the red.

The publications, initially about jazz and not subject to stringent censorship, became a popular outlet for dissident authors not allowed to publish elsewhere. The defendants say the proceedings were a political trial involving human rights.

As the sentences were being handed down to the five during a half-hour session, 200 supporters standing outside clapped in a jazz rhythm.