The court punished a politician from the center of Prague. For the sale of lucrative apartments
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At the end of last week, the district court for Prague 1 issued a decision in the case of the sale of city apartments, in which 30 people were indicted.
According to the indictment, they sold 22 lucrative properties in the center of Prague for a lower price than was later determined by an expert opinion. According to the plaintiff, they did not find out what the usual prices are.
“The defendants were fined,” confirmed the verdict by the spokeswoman of the District Court for Prague 1, Pavla Hájková.
The court handed down the sentence by a so-called criminal order. Therefore, he did not announce the main trial, to which the case will ultimately succeed. According to the findings of Seznam Zpráv, some defendants have already filed a so-called objection against the court’s decision, so it will be necessary to discuss the case publicly, since filing an objection cancels the criminal order.
“And a trial will be ordered,” said Pavla Hájková.
According to earlier information from Seznam Zpráva, the former mayor Oldřich Lomecký (then TOP 09), his deputy Daniel Hodek (ČSSD), two current councilors of Prague 1, Jan Votoček (TOP 09) and Richard Bureš (ODS), or representative Filip Kračman ( TOP 09).
For example, Richard Bureš told Seznam Zprávám that he has not yet received the criminal order from the court, but that he will defend himself against it. “Of course I will oppose the criminal order like everyone else,” he wrote to the editors.
Jan Votoček then stated that the notification about the court’s decision is probably in the mail. “I will definitely file an objection, I have the right to a due process when I lose confidence in the independence of the court,” he said of the verdict.
Prosecution: The damage is 32.5 million
The public prosecutor filed an indictment in which thirty politicians and officials are accused of obstructing the task of an official or breaching their duty in the management of someone else’s property and thus causing a total damage of 32,570,500 crowns.
“The indictment charges the elected members of the council with the fact that, by their actions, they on the one hand agreed to the announcement of a tender, in the framework of which the housing units in question were offered without knowledge of their usual price, without setting a minimum selling price and without advertising on websites commonly known and visited by the general public , so the resolution also approved the sale of the apartment units itself,” described the indictment, the spokesman for the Prague prosecutors, Aleš Cimbala, after it was filed in February this year.
In the accusation itself, the police previously wrote, for example, how Prague 1 sold a 4+kk apartment (143 square meters) in Klimentská street for 7.5 million. However, according to the expert’s opinion, the price should have been 3.9 million crowns higher.
“The police authority believes that it is obvious even to the lay public that the usual prices of some housing units in the affected locations are higher than the prices for which the previously marked housing units were sold,” the police said in the accusation.