Czech Writer Sentenced to 9 Months : Havel Convicted for Protest Amid Communist Crackdown

Dissident playwright Vaclav Havel was convicted Tuesday for his role in an unauthorized rally and sentenced to nine months in prison as Czechoslovakia’s Communist authorities persevered in their hard-line stance against human rights activists and opposition forces.

Havel, who was taken to and from a closely guarded courtroom in a sealed police van, had been in custody since his arrest Jan. 16 during a demonstration to honor the memory of a youth who burned himself to death to protest the Soviet invasion that crushed the “Prague Spring” reform movement in 1968.

The playwright was charged with inciting citizens to take part in banned demonstrations and with obstructing police.

Before he was sentenced, Havel, 52, told Helena Hvalata, the presiding criminal court judge, that he did not feel guilty and that the charges against him were not proven. He suggested that the authorities will one day be forced to “open a dialogue with society, not excluding anyone.”

Havel defended the activities of Charter 77, the human rights declaration that he helped write 12 years ago, arguing that he had often warned the authorities that resistance to reform would lead to increased public disaffection.

“Warning voices of this kind were not listened to,” Havel said, “and today the present power harvests what it has sown, the fruits of its own proud attitude.”

Havel’s trial took place in a courtroom on a narrow street sealed off by uniformed and plainclothes policemen. Representatives from international human rights agencies were barred, but Havel’s wife, Olga, and his brother, Ivan, were present.

53 Others Charged

During his trial, 53 other defendants were facing similar charges in courtrooms throughout the city. Seven other leading dissidents arrested in the memorial demonstrations, which spread over four days beginning Jan 15, were being tried together, and their cases were expected to be decided today.

The specific charges against Havel, in the view of Western diplomats and representatives of human rights groups gathered outside the court building, were virtually irrelevant. The object of the proceeding, they said, was to use Czechoslovakia’s most prominent dissident as an example to show that the authorities have no intention of taking part in the reforms sweeping other East European countries.

The demonstrations that led to the arrest of Havel and the others were among the most sustained protests in Czechoslovakia in nearly 20 years. The stern police response, which included the use of tear gas, water cannon and dogs, brought widespread shock to Czechoslovaks, who had assumed that frequent government references to “radical reform” meant that a measure of tolerance had crept into the system.

However, the government and the Communist Party apparatus seem to be firmly in the hands of officials whose rise to power followed the crackdown that came at the end of the 1968 reform movement. Any liberalization of the system, most observers say, would be taken as a decisive reversal for those officials.

‘Closed Off Options’

“They realize that any liberalization would mean the end of them,” said Jiri Dienstbier, an opposition activist and journalist. “They have closed off any other options.”

The hard-line stance of the Czechoslovak party bosses has been criticized not only by Western-based human rights organizations but by Communist Hungary and Poland, where officials have argued that further delay in undertaking reform could worsen Czechoslovakia’s economic and political situation. Recent high-ranking visitors from both countries, diplomatic sources have indicated, urged party leaders to open a dialogue with the opposition.

The Czechoslovak authorities, however, seem determined to hold to their hard-line course. Dissident activists say the authorities are concerned especially about containing a growing mood of discontent among young people, 18 to 25 years old, who have no memory of the 1968 events and have grown bolder in their protests in recent months.

Dissidents say that of the seven activists being tried together, the harshest sentence may be given to Jana Petrova, 22, who has emerged as one of the young people’s leaders.

“They want to teach the youth a lesson,” Dienstbier said. “I am afraid the sentences of Petrova and the others will be for the maximum.” The maximum sentences are two years for incitement and six months for obstructing police.

New Laws Against Protests

The authorities recently introduced new laws to prevent demonstrations and protests, including fines of up to $1,000 and jail terms for those who fail to heed police warnings to disperse from any event that officials feel is provocative.

The bite of the new regulations was evident outside the court building where Havel was tried. Scores of police officers were taking the names of passers-by and people lingering in the street, and anyone so recorded was subject to arrest and prosecution if caught on the street after an initial warning to move on.

About 200 Charter 77 supporters managed to get into the court building early in the day, but they were cleared out after the court took a brief break for lunch.

Havel was seen by only a few of them, and only for a moment, as he passed through a hallway dressed in jeans and a brown sweater.

His brother, Ivan, said he spoke to Havel for a few moments after the sentencing.

“I think he was in a good condition and in a good mood,” he said. “He said he was touched by the local and international support, and he said his mood from this was more important than the sentence.”

Havel has had frequent brushes with the authorities since the early 1970s. He spent nearly four years in prison, from 1979 to 1983, and since then has been a frequent target for police harassment.

With his internationally acclaimed status as a playwright, he has been the nation’s leading dissident voice and a constant thorn in the side of the regime.

Among his plays, generally starkly modern, are “The Temptation,” which will open in New York this spring; “The Garden Party,” and “The Memorandum.”