The man who set Czech Switzerland on fire knew what he was doing. He faces 15 years in prison

The public prosecutor charged a man in connection with starting a fire in Czech Switzerland, which was historically the largest in the territory of the Czech Republic. According to experts, the former volunteer guard knew what he was doing. This was reported by the iDNES server with reference to the deputy of the regional prosecutor’s office, Kateřina Doušová. The 36-year-old man faces up to 15 years in prison. He is accused of general endangerment and damage to another’s property. According to the investigators, he also set fire to a lookout tower or sitting areas in Děčín in April of this year.

According to Doušová, the indictment was sent to the Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem this week. According to Doušová, he partially confessed to the criminal activity, the motive of the man’s actions is not clear.

The defendant is in custody. According to the investigators, he caused damage of 350 million crowns with all his actions. In the filed indictment, the supervising public prosecutor proposes for him a sentence of roughly half of the aforementioned range, i.e. around 12 years and protective treatment in a constitutional form.

The fire near Hřensk near the Czech-German border broke out last night on July 24. Extinguishing the fire was very difficult. 6,000 firefighters took turns at it. It was extinguished after 20 days. The fire spread to more than 1000 hectares. The intervention in Bohemian Switzerland was complicated mainly by the extreme drought, high temperatures, strong wind and inaccessible terrain. The work of the responding firefighters was physically very demanding, they had to deal with omnipresent smoke and ash, and the danger of falling trees.