The Zlín Regional Court handed down an acquittal on Wednesday in the case of the kidnapping of the daughter of Kroměříž businessman Radomír Vybíral from 2014. The three men, Jakub Steidl, Ivo Lorenc and Tomáš Salvet, had been given conditions in the past, but now, following the decision of the Court of Appeal, the verdict has been changed. “It was not proven that the defendants committed this act,” said Jiří Dufek, chairman of the court panel, in the judgment. The judgment is not final.
Zlín Regional Court. The case of the kidnapping of the daughter of a businessman from Kroměříž. illustrative photo
| Photo: Deník / Jana Zavadilová
The court dealt with the case again from this April. The High Court returned the case to Zlín to review the contradictions in the statements. The Regional Court took into account the opinion of the Supreme Court of Appeal, which evaluated the evidence presented differently. Among other things, he drew attention to the contradiction between the incriminating statements of two other actors of the alleged kidnapping, namely Ladislav Faltýnek and Vladimír Zavadil, who were supposed to have watched the kidnapping from afar.
The regional court imposed a four-year suspended sentence on three men for kidnapping a woman from Kroměříž
“The only incriminating evidence against the three defendants was the testimony of these two witnesses. We called them to explain any discrepancies. They exercised their right and did not testify, so we could not eliminate the contradictions. And it was not proven beyond all doubt that these three defendants committed this act, that is why we have now issued an acquittal,” explained the president of the senate, Jiří Dufek, for the IDnes.cz website.
Judicial error
In 2016, thirty-eight-year-old Michal Šnajdr was convicted of kidnapping, and thus spent more than a year behind the walls of a peace prison.
It was later revealed that he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Even though he was no “innocent”, the innocent went to Mírov
“Mr. Šnajder’s case will end with partial compensation. The decision is made more difficult by the fact that in this case we had to ask for the cooperation of other departments of the Ministry, which are responsible for the supervision of executors and legislation,” explained Marcela Nevšímalová from the press department of the Ministry of Justice.
Five defendants
The case began to be discussed again in August 2020, when five men were charged with the kidnapping of Zuzana V.
The main defendant, Ladislav Faltýnek, confessed to the crime, both in the preliminary proceedings and in court. His accomplice Vladimír Zavadil also regretted the act in court. The other three defendants, Ivo Lorenc, Tomáš Salvet, and Jakub Steidl, denied guilt. At the same time, the practices that the defendants were supposed to carry out did not match those of the “mafia”.
The case of the kidnapping of Zuzana V.: The truth will be moved to the next year
According to the indictment, the men should have beaten the daughter of a Kroměříž businessman, handcuffed her hands behind her back, and put a bag over her head.
“They dragged her into a car, and then drove her around for several hours with the aim of taking her to Valašské Meziříčí,” the indictment stated, among other things.
According to public prosecutor Martin Malůš, the kidnappers wanted the woman to tell them where the money from her father’s criminal activity was hidden, for which he was legally convicted and is serving his sentence in prison. Allegedly, it was almost 100 million crowns and they were supposed to be hidden in Valašské Meziříčí. The woman saved herself only by promising the kidnappers that she would bring them money.
The case of the kidnapping of a businessman’s daughter: Witness statements did not help the defendants
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