Ľubomír Hatala

“Then the judge told me, it was obvious I did not change for the better, that the judgement didn’t break me. I asked him about the fairness of the trial, since I wasn’t allowed to have any defense lawyer, even though he was paid. My father sent hundred crowns. They sent him back eighty and said that the trial was not held. But the lawyer didn’t even know when the proceedings were. No one let him know that I was calling him, although I had the right to talk to him, to receive advice, but I got nothing. Then I thought to myself that it’s all right and when they shall offer me a lawyer ex officio, I would refuse him and defend myself. ‘I have a mouth to defend myself, I have never killed or robbed anybody, thus they can judge me as they want.’ They stared at me, thought how sassy and arrogant I was, and probably I influenced them somehow, as they sentenced me to 18 months.”

“When we went by bus from Prievidza, I was standing all the way, as there were elder ones needed to be seated. The windows were painted so that no one could see inside. We were not allowed to open them, the policemen with submachine guns sat inside, and so on. As we went from Prievidza, there was also a boy, about two years younger than me. He asked me if I didn’t know some girl, whose name he also told me, but I didn’t know her. I said she must have been younger and that I didn’t know her. I looked better at him and he had holes on both palms. He could only be 18 or 19 years old. A young guy. Maybe even younger. I asked him what was that and he said he took cigarettes and burnt his hands himself. I thought to myself he had to be insane, but he continued to ask me about knowing the girl. I said I didn’t and that I had quite different things to think of, so that he should knock it off. However, there was another weird man, a bit older, jumping out of his seat. I didn’t know, where he was from. He stood up and said, ‘I am the convict no. this and that and I swear I wanted to betray this republic, thus I broke the law no. this and that…’ The policemen seated him back, told him to be quiet, to quit doing that, but in about half an hour he jumped again and did the same thing. Well, both him and the young guy were completely insane.” “Was that from the interrogations?” “Yes, for sure. And the young boy surely lied about burning his hands by himself. I bet it was during the interrogations when they burnt his palms. Those were really shocking moments for me.”