Czech court rejects Jewish restitution claim

Czech court rejects Jewish restitution claim
By KAREL JANICEK
The Associated Press
Wednesday, December 15, 2010; 1:47 PM

PRAGUE -- A Czech court has rejected a restitution claim by the Jewish descendants of a man who owned a button factory that was taken over by the Nazis and then nationalized.

The Constitutional Court on Wednesday overturned a 2009 Supreme Court ruling and all previous rulings of lower courts that found in favor of three relatives of Zikmund Waldes, who owned the Koh-i-noor factory in Prague when the Nazis seized it in 1939 during their occupation of what was then Czechoslovakia.

The factory was nationalized after the war in 1945. No compensation was paid.