BBC News Online: World: Europe

Former Czech PM faces trial

A former Czechoslovak Prime Minister, Lubomir Strougal, is to be tried on abuse of power charges.

A state prosecutor in Prague said that while serving as interior minister in 1965, Mr Strougal is alleged to have suppressed an inquiry into the murder by the secret police of three political opponents in 1949.

Mr Strougal, who is 76, was prime minister of Czechoslovakia between 1970 and and 1988.

He held office in the hardline regime that took over after the Soviet Union invaded the country and deposed the liberal Communist leader, Alexander Dubcek.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service