Jan Horák, a clerk at the Prague Land Office, received seven years in prison and a fine of 4.5 million crowns, his superior Eva Benešová six years in prison and the same fine, and Petr Chmelík a one-year probation, paying CZK 800,000. According to the court, the land in question is occupying.
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The Prague City Court had no doubts about the guilt of the officials. According to the chairwoman of the Criminal Chamber, Jana Miklová, the officials completely resigned themselves in order to obtain available information. They made decisions virtually arbitrarily and illegally.
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“As one of the witnesses said, it was enough to get three papers. Obtaining these documents was not even time consuming, it was not difficult to obtain the documents, nor was it any research or detective work, “Miklová criticized the defendants.
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Lucrative land
According to the indictment, the officials illegally awarded Emilia Bednářová lucrative replacement lands for real estate originally belonging to Jan M. Bečvář, even though she was the heiress of his brother Josef. Other restituents, according to the indictment, could inherit only from his sister. In several cases, the property was originally owned by all three siblings, and the heirs were to receive only two-thirds of the claim, sometimes belonging only to Jan M. Bečvář, and not to receive it at all.
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The defendants denied the blame and claimed that they had not acted intentionally and believed the affidavit submitted.
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The media previously stated that this most extensive restitution in the Czech Republic was used, for example, by lobbyist Roman Janoušek or businessman Tomáš Hrdlička, and thus they gained huge assets.
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The indictment was aimed at several decisions of officials from 2009 to 2012, on the basis of which Bednářová and other restituents acquired lucrative lands as compensation for the fact that the state did not return the property to them after Bečvář in Prague’s Strašnice and Žižkov. The accused Horák described the woman as a niece of Jan M. Bečvář, although she was only entitled to an inheritance from his brother Josef Bečvář, who introduced her in the will.
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Horák and Benešová were threatened with up to 12 years in prison for abusing the authority of an official. Hops was accused of obstructing the act of a public official for negligence, which is punishable by up to five years in prison.
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The Supreme Court intervened
The Land Office identified Bednářová as the owner of the disputed lands in 2012. When her claim proved to be at least disputed, the Office tried to reverse its decisions by declaring them null and void. Bednářová turned to the Prague City Court, which ruled in her favor in March. He annulled the decision of the office and returned the case to him for further resolution.
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However, the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) annulled this decision of the municipal court on Wednesday, stating that the court did not proceed correctly when it canceled the proceedings in the first days of the state of emergency and later ruled in camera. The court had to act again.
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