Ex-Czech secret agent draws prison term

OLOMOUC, Czech Republic, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Former Communist secret police agent Pavel Minarik must serve up to six years in prison for insurance fraud, a Czech Republic court ruled.

The Czech Web site Aktualne.cz reported Tuesday that Minarik drew the sentence from the High Court in Olomouc on appeal after a lower court in Brno originally sentenced the former StB agent to 4 1/2 years, the Czech news service CTK said.

The court reportedly found Minarik improperly received a $375,000 insurance settlement after his accomplices burned a consignment of overpriced optical fibers in a phony car accident, rejecting the Ukrainian insurer's offer to provide new fibers for him.

Minarik, who had pleaded not guilty, is well-known in connection with an StB plot to bomb the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe station where he worked undercover from 1969 to 1976. Minarik was acquitted of charges after Czechoslovakia's Communist regime fell in 1989, CTK said.