„To byla úplná novinka v právním řádu. Vyšla v roce 73 a hned jsme oba dva dostali ochranný dohled. A to bylo takové volné pokračování vězení na svobodě, že jsem měl povinnost se hlásit i několikrát v týdnu na stanici Veřejné bezpečnosti. Ukazovat jim, že pracuji, výplatní pásku a takové věci. A nesměl jsem svou rodnou obec Mohelnici, kde jsem žil, opustit bez jejich svolení. A to trvalo rok. Mohli mně kdykoliv přijít udělat domovní prohlídku bez jakéhokoliv povolení, což občas dělali, aby si upevnili sebevědomí.“
„Gustáv Husák v roce 74 nebo 75 vyhlásil amnestii, že když se emigranti vrátí do Československa, tak už nebudou trestně postihováni. Samozřejmě ti, kteří se vrátili, tak je všechny pozavírali. Byl tam třeba důlní inženýr, který byl asi pět let v Chile, v měděných dolech. Říkal, že tam byl úplně sám a skoro by zapomněl mluvit česky, a když slyšel o té amnestii, tak se vrátil a zavřeli ho na pět let. Takovéhle tam byly osudy. Pak tam byl nějaký ekonom, inženýr, který dal jen krátkou zprávu do Rudého práva, kde vyčíslil naše zadlužení vůči Západu. A oni ho zavřeli a seděl myslím tři roky. Z vazby měl strašně poškozený zrak. Estébáci chodili za ním do výkonu trestu a říkali mu, že když tu zprávu bude dementovat, když ji poopraví, že ho propustí. A on říkal, že nic dementovat nebude, že si to odsedí.“
„Podotýkám, že v sedmdesátých letech už to nebyl výslech z padesátých let, žádné mučení. Bylo to spíš psychické mučení. Ve vyšetřovací vazbě se svítilo celou noc. Vím, že jsem po propuštění z výkonu trestu měl problémy s bolestí hlavy a někdy alergii na světlo, že mě rozbolela hlava, protože člověk neznal tmu, pořád byl nasvícený. Myslím, že jsem tam byl osm měsíců. Je známo, že vyšetřovací vazba je obtížnější a krutější než výkon trestu, protože tam je člověk s jedním nebo dvěma vězni na ploše. Jsme chodili ode dveří k oknu asi osm kroků. Vycházky z trestního řádu byly povinné jednu hodinu do těch kotců. My jsme tomu říkali teletník. Těšili jsme se na to. Ale jakmile bylo špatné počasí, začalo pršet, tak se vycházka zrušila. Oni se vyžívali v takových radostech, kdy něco mohli někomu odmítnout.“
“Section n. 1 on the ground floor were ‘politicians‘ [political prisoners]. They marked us with a white stripe on our clothes so that everyone who got in touch with us knew that we were anti-state. That was one issue. Another issue was that we were there all the time. A prisoner would go to work outside the prison. For instance jailbirds worked in Škoda company in Mladá Boleslav, the whole operation was filled by prisoners. And so it was done like this. For example prisoners from Mírov prison often worked here in Mohelnice in a paint shop. They painted electric motors. Well, and of course we were always in the prison. We worked in a basement under us. Copper coils for telephones were manufactured there. They were manufactured in the basement on machines that were very outdated. The result was that the copper wire would often tear during the winding of the coil, so that a prisoner had troubles fulfilling the work standard. And the work standard was used as a basis for disciplinary evaluation at that time. So when the prisoner did not fulfil the work standard repeatedly, he got a disciplinary punishment which was mainly so-called solitary confinement which basically meant a prison within prison. Solitary confinement means that the prisoner is moved from his plank bed to a different cell where he is mostly alone, gets a limited amount of food and he either goes to work from that cell or he even is not allowed to go to work. Well, and then he gets into debts to the state due to it.”
“There was violence by wardens, especially in a solitary confinement where the prisoner was apart from the others. Ten of us lived together upstairs, such things did not repeat regularly, they happened more sporadically there. However, they tried what they could dare downstairs in the solitary confinement.”
“The military service was like a sequel to prison and I do not exaggerate. Because I joined the 74/81 military unit - artillery regiment in Jemnice and I soon found out that eight of ten young men there had been in prison. So it was a punitive unit. It was like the For Love and Gold film. We were normally armed - the Auxiliary technical battalions, so called black barons did not exist anymore - so we were armed but we operated WWII cannons that had been taken from the German army. So we shot the 152 mm howitzer-guns whole two years. And it was crazy and stupid. Basically, it was a sequel to the prison in Bory. Because I could go home on furlough for the first time after fourteen months of military service.”
“They rang at our door and they stormed into the apartment like Gestapo and took us away. We were being investigated in State Security regional administrative the whole day. They announced me in the evening that I could go home and that my flatmate Jan Glonda would go to pre-trial detention and that I could go home but that I would have to make a commitment not to leave Ostrava, to go just to school and not to continue my activities under any circumstances. I promised it to them there and when they let me go, I took the tram directly to [Ostrava] Poruba and I heroically took the train to Olomouc and I visited Joža Valček in Chvalkovice there and I told him straight away what had happened. He of course did not know what to do because we did not know what was awaiting us and what the days would bring. I then returned to Ostrava peacefully and went to school. It took almost exactly a month. I of course went to see Joža Valček several times until that time. Well and then again, they rang at the door again at half past five in the morning and: ‘Come with us!’ And they told me: ’Mr. Janhuba, you did not obey us and you met Mr. Valček and we will keep you here.’ And I started pre-trial detention too.”
Radomír Janhuba was born on 28 February 1954 in Mohelnice. He studied at Secondary Technical School in Olomouc from 1969 to 1973 and he then started to study at Mechanical Faculty of Mining University in Ostrava. He got in touch with illegal Unification Church during his studies in Olomouc. State Security came for him to his flat in Ostrava during first year of his studies in Autumn 1973, it was followed by custody and a court case. Finally, he was unconditionally sentenced for sedition to serve 15 months and to a year of additional protective surveillance. He served his sentence in Pilsen prison in Bory from 1974 to 1975. He joined an artillery regiment in Jemnice after the end of the additional protective surveillance. He worked for South Moravian Waterworks and Sewerage company in Jemnice since the end of the 1970s. He studied at University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague from 1979 to 1985. Because of his “criminal” past, he could not be in charge in the Waterworks company and he could not start working in Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant in the 1980s. He was rehabilitated by court after the Velvet Revolution. He did many different jobs after revolution and he got retired in 2017. Radomír Janhuba was living in his native home in Mohelnice during the time of shooting of the interview (2021).
