Czech court rehabilitates Václav Trtík, witness to Číhošť miracle

The Regional Court in Hradec Králové has rehabilitated Václav Trtík, a parishioner and witness involved in the so-called ‘Číhošť miracle’ of December 1949. The court ruled that Trtík was illegally detained in 1950 by the communist State Security (StB) during the persecution of priest Josef Toufar, who was tortured to death during interrogation.

Trtík, who passed away in 2007, had been arrested in February 1950 under suspicion of participating in a religious fraud. According to his legal representative, Lubomír Müller, Trtík refused to cooperate with the StB to confirm a fabricated version of events. The rehabilitation process was initiated by Trtík’s daughter, Marie Vavřičková, seeking moral cleansing for her father.

The ruling is not yet final, as the state prosecutor has requested time to consider filing an appeal. Prosecutor František Jedlička noted that while he does not doubt the illegality of the imprisonment, he argued that the current evidentiary situation—consisting of one contemporary document and two family chronicles—might not be sufficient to grant the rehabilitation under current legal standards.