“The only wrongdoing Stříteský did was that he took the gun and threw it into the ditch. It cost him twenty five years in jail.”
![kohout_mladi.JPG (historic)](/sites/default/files/witness/899/899-portrait_former.jpg)
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Mr. Miloslav Kohout was born on December 21st 1930 in Litomyšl town. He was just in the sixth grade of the local state Gymnasium when emerge of the communist regime came in February of 1948. He was a member of the student government and he also participated in boycott of trade union general strike which was planned on the day before the putsch in Gymnasium as well as throughout the country. At the time of increased pressure (1949) of the Czechoslovak Youth Organization on the Scouts Movement he wrote a leaflet called Colleagues and set up a meeting of few friends. During this meeting they have discussed a joint action against the “integration”efforts of the CSM (Czechoslovak Youth Organization). This group was already preciously named by Mr. Kohout as ATA (with the subtitle Star) and didn´t have enough of time to develop fully its organized activity. In June of 1949 was Mr. Kohout arrested and detained in custody until March of 1950. After his release he couldn´t carry on his studies, for he was dismissed from the school in the mean time. He was looking for some job. He and all of his friends were arrested again on September 16th 1950. The Stříteský case was held on October 7th - October 11th 1950. Mr. Kohout was judged as an adult and was sentenced to twenty years of imprisonment. In addition the court imposed a fine of 10.000 Czech crowns, the loss of civil rights for ten years and also confiscated all of his property. Less than five years of his sentence he served in Chrudim prison, in uranium mine in Jachymov Brotherhood in camp XII in Horní Slavkov town , then in Leopoldov prison and in Bytiz camp in Příbram region. He has been released on September 16th 1954.