The case of a volunteer looting in Ukraine is heading to court, he faces up to 30 years

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The public prosecutor filed an indictment against a Czech volunteer who was active at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and whom Czech criminal investigators accused of serving in a foreign army and of looting at the site of military operations. The case will be dealt with by the Municipal Court in Prague, Czech Television (ČT) reported today with reference to prosecutor Martin Bílé from the High Prosecutor’s Office in Prague. It follows from the judicial database that the court has not yet ordered a trial.

According to the Criminal Code, the criminal act of service in foreign armed forces is committed by a citizen of the Czech Republic who, in violation of other legal regulations, serves in the army or armed forces of another state. The President can grant permission to Czech citizens who want to join the fighting on the Ukrainian side. But according to earlier information, the accused man did not have it.

According to CT, if found guilty, the 26-year-old man faces a maximum of five years in prison for serving in a foreign army, but up to 20 years for robbery, and the court can also impose an exceptional sentence of 20 to 30 years.

According to earlier information from the Seznam Zprávy server, the man worked as a volunteer soldier in the Ukrainian volunteer battalion Karpatská Sič at the end of March 2022. The person in question confirmed his participation in the web battalion and confessed that he was stealing from abandoned houses that he and his unit were supposed to clean from the Russian occupation troops. “I followed what I was told. The commanding officer told me that spoils of war are spoils of war. We didn’t do anything that someone else wasn’t doing. In retrospect, I admit that it was probably stupid,” the suspect told the server earlier.

The case was investigated by police officers from the National Headquarters against Terrorism, Extremism and Cybercrime. Prosecutor Bílý told the website last April that the accused is being prosecuted in custody, while the District Court for Prague 5 decided to take him into custody.