Štefan Tiso

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Štefan Tiso (* October 18, 1897 † March 28, 1959) was a lawyer and president of the Supreme Court of the Slovak republic (1939-1945). He was also Prime Minister (replacing Vojtech Tuka), Foreign Minister (replacing Vojtech Tuka) and Minister of Justice (replacing Gejza Fritz) of the Slovak Republic 1944-1945. In 1944 the leaders of the Czecho-communist so called Slovak National council Šrobár, Ursíny, Lettrich, Štefánik, Šoltés and Zaťko were not arrested, but as the members of a terrorist organization they were accused as traitors. When pro-Czechoslovak members of the senate led by Dr. Terebessy (in the 1929 and 1946 presides court against prof. Vojtech Tuka) sentenced those traitors to low penalties, Dr. Štefan Tiso proposed a simple change in process laws and the Supreme Court formed a new trial. Although some historians presume that Dr. Tiso said to the judges who were to preside over the new trial that: "The order is the death penalty. Who will not obey will be imprisoned". (“rozkaz je trest smrti a kto neposlúchne toho nechá zavrieť.”) this sentence is not based on real contemporary sources.The prosecutor in the process had a clear order from dr. Tiso as aminister of justice,to ask the court for the death penalties only for those members of group,that were not within the territory of the Slovak Republic.

In a postwar trial, Štefan Tiso was sentenced to a life sentence, and died in prison in Moravia probably in 1955; there are no clear sources of his death,his family was informed about his death only in 1955.