5 Ex-Communist Leaders Are Detained in Prague

Former Communist Party leader Milos Jakes and four other former high-ranking party officials were reported Wednesday to have been detained in connection with their roles in the Soviet-led invasion that wiped out this nation’s “Prague Spring” reforms in 1968.

All but one, according to Czechoslovak television, were questioned and released.

The detentions, made public by the Czechoslovak news agency CTK, came two days before the first free elections here since 1946 but are not considered likely to have much of an impact on the electoral fortunes of the Communist Party.

The voting will take place Friday and Saturday, and the Communists are widely expected to do poorly at the polls.

Detained along with Jakes was Vasil Bilak, the party’s ideological chief, who has been regarded as the man who in 1968 invited the Soviet Union and the other Warsaw Pact powers to intervene. Bilak, who has denied this, was a powerful and influential figure in the party until the peaceful revolution that ousted the Communists from power last November.

The news agency said Bilak was detained on suspicion of engaging in “serious criminal activity.” It gave no reason for the other detentions.

Also detained were former Premier Jozef Lenart and two former senior party officials, Michal Stefanak and Rudolf Hegenbart. Hegenbart was named last week in a BBC documentary as one of those who allegedly worked with the Soviet KGB to oust Jakes last November.

Bilak was reportedly detained in Bratislava late Tuesday, but the agency did not say when the others were detained. The prosecutor’s office said Bilak was held on a 48-hour investigation warrant and would be released.

The television report said all five were being investigated for “suspicion of property machinations” and possible “currency violations,” in addition to their roles in the 1968 invasion.

Another hard-line Czechoslovak party official, Miroslav Stepan, has been in jail since December on charges of abuse of power. The former head of the secret police is also under arrest.

Jakes presided over a major purge of the party after the 1968 invasion. For years he was second in command behind party leader Gustav Husak. Jakes succeeded Husak in 1987 and was in charge of the party when the changes sweeping through Eastern Europe reached Prague last November.