The municipal court in Brno on Tuesday imposed suspended and monetary penalties on two people for bribery in connection with the so-called Brno housing case. The court approved the plea agreement, so the decision is final. The case is closely related to the case surrounding the former chairman of the housing committee of the Brno-střed district and ODS politician Otakar Bradáč, in which the police are prosecuting several people. This part of the investigation is not over yet. This is the first conviction in connection with the case.
Erik Kowolowski received a sentence of 18 months suspended for three years and a fine of 50,000 crowns. The court sentenced Markéta Ilčáková to 15 months suspended for two years and a fine of 40,000 crowns. Both confessed fully, in February of this year they both agreed to an agreement with the plaintiff.
According to the approved agreement, Kowolowski was favored in the waiting list for a municipal apartment as a result of false information in his application for an apartment in Hrnčířská Street. For example, he stated that his daughter had a spinal injury, was immobile and needed to be looked after, or that his girlfriend was pregnant. Thanks to this, he got an apartment in just a few months, it usually takes years. According to the agreement, he was advised by other people who could influence the allocation of the apartment, including the then chairman of the Housing Commission, Bradáč. For this, according to the agreement, he gave them a bribe of 300,000 crowns. According to the approved agreement, he also advised Ičáková on how to proceed in order to obtain a city apartment in Veveří. According to the agreement, Ilčáková gave a bribe of 250,000 crowns.
“These cases were completely clear, both accused confessed from the beginning of the criminal proceedings and signaled from the beginning that they were interested in concluding agreements,” said prosecutor Petra Lastovecká. She said that both the accused were very helpful regarding the main branch of the case as well. “They fully confess to their criminal activity, and since they had to cooperate with other persons who participated in their criminal activity, they of course also describe the criminal activity of these persons,” said the plaintiff.
Next week, the city court will start dealing with another similar case, the accused of bribery is a police officer. In this case, the court will deal with the case in the main trial.
Due to suspicions of machinations with apartments in the Brno-střed district, the police in Brno intervened in October 2022. They detained eight people. At the time, the High Prosecutor’s Office in Olomouc initiated criminal prosecution of those concerned for participation in an organized criminal group, accepting bribes for the benefit of the group and abuse of authority of an official. Last February, the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office canceled the prosecution of two of them, and the police then started prosecuting three more people.
In the second half of October 2022, the police intervened in Brno for the second time, namely at the housing department of the municipality, at the town hall Brno-sever, Brno-Černovice, in the Černovice sand pit and in the office of the outgoing Deputy Mayor and now Minister of the Environment Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL) . The police are prosecuting nine people and three companies in the case surrounding the sand pit in Brno-Černovice, but not Hladík.
In November 2022, a third case loosely related to the previous cases followed, when criminal investigators suspected two women of unauthorized use of non-residential premises in a house on Hlinky in Brno. NSZ canceled their prosecution last February, but the police subsequently charged the women again and two other people with them.
The statutory provision on the plea agreement came into force in the fall of 2020. The defendant can agree with the prosecutor to plead guilty, the agreement is approved by the court. The provision is intended to facilitate and speed up criminal proceedings, as evidence is eliminated.
