Minister without Portfolio

Jaroslav Basta

     Detained in January 1970 for his involvement in the students' protest movement, Mr.Basta was forced, for political reasons, to discontinue his studies of archeology in the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. He was then sentenced to thirty months imprisonment without suspension for the so-called "subversion of the Republic". After serving his sentence, he found employment with the Stavby silnic a zeleznic civil engineering company, first as a labourer, later as a technical worker. He signed the document Charter 77.  He served in 1990,at the Federal Ministry of the Interior Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Democracy and later, as Deputy Director of the Security and Information Service until his departure from public service. In 1993 Mr.Basta started a private business. He is the author of more than one hundred papers, essays and studies on archeology in western Bohemia, on secret service issues. Since June 1996, Mr.Basta has been a Deputy to the Chamber of Deputies of the CR Parliament where he has served as Vice-Chairman of the Defence and Security Committee, and Chairman of the Commission for the Supervision of the BIS Security and Information Service. Mr. Basta is a member of the CSSD Social Democratic Party and its spokesman for security issues.