In 1966, Jan Beneš married Šárka Šefranková. After collecting more than 300 signatures on a petition against the imprisonment of the Russian writers Sinyavski and Daniel, he was held 11 months in custody. He was arrested ten days after the wedding, for the crime of treason - subversion of the socialistic social and state system, and an attempt for deceit. According to H Schwarz's "200 Days in Prague", the ill-famed trial Tigrid–Beneš–Zámečník, and involvement of the head of the state and the Communistic Party in fact launched the events of the Prague Spring. Lawyer of the Amnesty International, Dr. Sieghart, was expelled from Czechoslovakia during Beneš's trial. Pregnant Sarka was brutally interrogated by the StB. Pressure on the family was immense. Beneš was sentenced for 5 years in prison, but was released on March 22, 1968, due to the amnesty of president Novotný, as the last political prisoner in Czechoslovakia.