President Václav Havel's decision on January 1, 1990, to grant amnesty to more than 21,000 convicted individuals was a significant revolutionary turning point: a symbolic break with the practices of communist judiciary. This first fundamental decision became part of Havel's political and moral legacy. However, the amnesty later became an easy target for Havel's critics and opponents after some of those released committed crimes again. The media coverage of certain cases significantly contributed to this. Myths about "Havel's amnesty" continue to spread today, partly because there is a lack of expert, journalistic, or literary sources on the topic. The book Amnestie aims to partially fill this gap. It is published on the occasion of the release of the film Amnestie. It presents a literary adaptation of the film script with illustrations by Jozef Gertli Danglár, essays by Slovak historian Fedor Blaščák, Czech dissident and later employee of the Office of President Václav Havel on the issue of granting pardons Lenka Marečková, memories of witnesses to the prison uprising in Leopoldov (Fedor Gál, Michael Kocáb, Joska Skalník, Štefan Hríb, Roman Kvasnica, Ladislav Snopko, and others), and several expert studies published in contemporary criminological collections.
