I was insane, claims a new woman about triggering the museum’s fire protection system
The accused woman changed her lawyer and changed her opinion on the deal. “She did not want to make an agreement like this, it was not a free expression of will,” said her new lawyer at the District Court for Prague 1 on Monday.
“I agree that I do not agree with the agreement,” said the woman when Ondřej Lázna asked her in the Senate if she understood what was happening in one case.
The defense attorney presented the court with a prepared opinion, according to which his client was insane at the time she activated the fire extinguisher. At the same time, the police have another report available, which claims that the perpetrator knew what he was doing and was sane.
“The agreement on guilt and punishment is not approved and the case is returned to the preliminary proceedings,” announced the judge of Lázn after consulting with the judges. In his opinion, the contradiction in expert opinions should be resolved by a constitutional examination of the accused woman. Whether and how it will be necessary to supplement the evidence, I now have to assess the public prosecutor’s office, which will also decide whether to file an indictment in the end.
The event happened on March 31 after 4 p.m. in the New Building of the National Museum. “After the woman entered one of the rooms, she headed straight for her alarm button and pressed it,” described police spokesman Jan Rybanský. However, this button only served to cancel and block the alarm, so no system was activated.
That is probably why the woman repeated the attempt in the next room, broke the protective glass and pressed the button again. “This time it activated the fire extinguisher system, which consists of releasing a gas that displaces the air from the fire affected area, effectively extinguishing the fire,” explained the spokesman.
The woman unnecessarily released extinguishing gas from two several-hundred-kilogram tanks into the room, which caused damage in the amount of three million crowns. She fled the scene, but was caught by security cameras and several visitors.
At the beginning of April, the police released a video, thanks to which they managed to identify the female suspect in a few hours. She is now being prosecuted for a crime and endangering the operation of a public utility facility with a sentence of one to six years in prison.