Vaclav Havel Laid to Rest at Prague Cemetery

The leader of Czech's Velvet Revolution and former president Vaclav Havel, who died on December 18 aged 75, was laid to rest in a family tomb at a Prague cemetery on Wednesday, his secretary said.

Havel's second wife Dagmar, an actress, "laid the remains of her husband in a family tomb on the day and hour of the 15th anniversary of their wedding," Sabina Tancevova told Agence France Presse.

"After church and state funeral ceremonies watched by hundreds of thousands of people, she preferred a more private farewell," she added.

Havel's urn was laid next to that of his first wife Olga, who died in 1996, and of his parents and grandparents in a granite tomb on the side of the Chapel of St Wenceslas at the Vinohrady cemetery in central Prague.

Havel, born into a wealthy Prague family, was president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 to 1992 and subsequently the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003 after the federation split.

The former dissident playwright steered his compatriots through the bloodless Velvet Revolution in 1989 that toppled Soviet-backed communism in the then-Czechoslovakia.

Havel's state funeral on December 23 was attended by scores of prominent figures including Hillary and Bill Clinton, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron.