Prague – The lawyer for the Popper family, the original owner of the Russian embassy building in Prague, has asked Czech courts to ban President Vaclav Klaus and other senior state officials from entering the building it claims in court, the server iHned.cz writes.
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Lawyer Irena Benesova says Klaus and other politicians disdain the rights of the heir of the property when acknowledging that it belongs to Russia.
Benesova said the family of the Jewish banker Popper was locked in a court dispute over the villa and property in the Prague-Bubenec neighbourhood with the Czech state.
The Poppers owned the house and land from 1927. In 1939 the real estate of the old Jewish family was confiscated by Nazi Germany and turned the villa into Gestapo headquarters.
After World War Two, then Czechoslovak president Edvard Benes donated the house and adjacent land to the Soviet Union, allegedly for help in Czechoslovakia’s liberation.
Lisbeth Popper, daughter of banker Jiri Popper, has sued both Russia and the Czech Republic over her claim.
However, the Czech Finance Ministry has said the property was transferred at the time to which the restitution laws do not refer.