Milan Kundera denies spy tip-off claims
The celebrated Czech author Milan Kundera has rejected accusations that he denounced a Western intelligence agent in his country when he was a student 58 years ago.
The claims by local historians are based on a 1950 police report stating that Mr Kundera informed on a young Czech pilot who worked as an agent for American intelligence and was arrested on his first mission in Prague following the tip-off.
It was also alleged that Mr Kundera’s supposed denunciation prompted the arrest of several people who helped the agent enter the country, one of whom was later executed by the Soviet-controlled Communist authorities of former Czechoslovakia.
Mr Kundera, who is known for his reclusiveness and has not spoken publicly since 1985, broke his silence yesterday with a brief statement to deny the claims, which he deemed an “assassination of an author”. Speaking to the Czech News Agency, he said: “I am completely taken aback by this story, of which I know nothing and which never happened. I never knew the person involved. It is a lie.”
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