One of the country’s most notorious fugitives, billionaire Radovan Krejčíř, is another step closer to escaping Czech justice forever. Almost a year after he was arrested in South Africa, a Johannesburg court on Friday ruled against his extradition to the Czech Republic. The court said that the murder plot and three-billion-crown tax fraud he was accused of are not considered crimes in South Africa.
The news from Johannesburg was a bad blow for the Czech Republic where Krejčíř has already been sentenced in absentia to six and a half years for tax fraud and is charged with a variety of other crimes including conspiracy to murder, counterfeiting, extortion and abduction. Although the prosecutor in the case Deon Barnard is mulling over whether to file an appeal, saying he needs more time to study the court's justification of its decision, the Czech Justice Ministry has not given up on the case. On Friday the ministry’s spokeswoman Zuzana Kuncová read out a brief statement to the press: “The Czech Republic has cooperated fully with the South African authorities in this extradition request and we are prepared to continue doing so in the future. Friday’s ruling is that of an independent court in a sovereign state and the ministry is not in a position to pass judgment on it.”
Radovan Krejčíř has thumbed his nose at the Czech authorities for years. He first gained notoriety by giving the police the slip while they were raiding his luxury villa in Prague and escaping to the Seychelles where he and his family lived for two years – beyond the reach of Czech justice. The Interior Ministry vowed to catch up with him and when in April of last year he was apprehended at Johannesburg airport in South Africa Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer said this was a message to all criminals that one could not escape justice forever. On Friday a triumphant Radovan Krejčíř parodied the minister’s words from Johannesburg: “I have two messages for my countrymen. First good news for all the decent people like myself – namely that justice has been done. And I have bad news for all the corrupt politicians back home, whom I warn that the truth will eventually come out and every one of them will be held accountable.”
Krejčíř’s latest triumph in his cat and mouse game with the Czech authorities is a major embarrassment, especially since the Czech side made some procedural mistakes which slowed down the Johannesburg court case, while Krejčíř never put a foot wrong. He had clearly studied the South African legal system in great detail and has asked for political asylum in the country. A decision on that request may take years and Krejčíř cannot be extradited before it is reached. If the court decides that it has reason to do so, which at present seems more unlikely than ever.
Source: Radio Praha
Showing posts with label Czech Republic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Czech Republic. Show all posts
Monday, February 4, 2008
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Czech fugitive nabbed at OR Tambo Airport
When millionaire Radovan Krejcir slipped out the back door of his luxury villa near Prague in the Czech Republic, and fled to the Seychelles, a police chief was fired for letting the wanted man escape.
Over the next two years, Czech authorities began losing hope of getting their suspect back as the 38-year-old Krejcir and his family secured new citizenship and settled down in the island paradise.
But in a surprise twist the alleged criminal boss - wanted for fraud and planning a murder - was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport on Saturday.
Krejcir, who appeared at the Kempton Park magistrate's court on Monday, had entered the country on a fake passport, national police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said. He travelled under the name Egbert Jules Savy and was flying from Madagascar, members of the Crime Intelligence Unit reported. He was nabbed at 5.15pm as he got off the plane.
Krejcir has been on the run since 2005 and has reportedly made shocking claims of giving bribes to his country's government officials. From his hideout in the Seychelles, Krejcir said a book he was writing would prove to be "the next Watergate scandal" for the Czech government. He has maintained his innocence and benefited from the fact that no extradition agreement exists between the Czech Republic and the Seychelles. "It is believed he intended to settle in South Africa," De Beer said on Monday night. "He is wanted by the Czech Republic on charges of fraud involving hundreds of millions of euros, as well as for conspiracy to commit murder."
Krejcir is suspected of orchestrating a complex fraud scheme in 2004 and 2005. During his court appearance on Monday, Krejcir's identity was confirmed and his case postponed to May 2. He will remain in custody until then.
De Beer said a warrant of arrest would now have to be sent from the Czech Republic, after which the extradition process would start. Interpol had issued a red notice - an international warrant of arrest "with a view to extradition" - for Krejcir, but it seems unlikely that he will be boarding a plane soon.
Extraditions out of South Africa have been put on hold pending the outcome of an alleged stem cell fraud couple's challenge to the extradition agreement between South Africa and the US. If accused stem cell fraudsters Stephen van Rooyen and Laura Brown succeed in their Pretoria High Court bid, which is due to continue on Thursday, every single extradition treaty concluded by South Africa since 1996 would be rendered invalid.
Source: IoL
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Fugitive billionaire Radovan Krejcir launches counterattack from the Seychelles
The case of the fugitive Czech billionaire Radovan Krejcir has taken a new twist. From his hideout in the Seychelles the man whom the police claim was the ringleader of a dangerous gang has taken a swipe at the ruling Social Democrats, claiming that he loaned the party 60 million crowns back in 2002 in return for special favours.
Conspiracy to murder, money forgery, tax evasion, extortion, abduction - those are just some of the crimes that Radovan Krejcir is wanted for in the Czech Republic. In recent days the Czech police arrested five people who are believed to be his closest accomplices in a dangerous crime-ring which Krejcir allegedly headed or still heads. The head of a special police squad for fighting corruption and economic crime Jiri Novak said the police had plenty of evidence to nail all members of the gang. "We believe that we got all the big fish here. My team has been working on this case since last November - and the information and documents we have collected look pretty convincing. They convinced us and we hope they'll convince the state attorney."
Safe from his hideout in the Seychelles with his family around him and a Seychelles passport in his pocket, Radovan Krejcir dropped his bombshell-accusing the ruling Social Democratic Party of having accepted a 60 million crown bribe from him back in 2002 - officially a loan, but one that was never meant to be repaid in return for special favours. Speaking to reporters, Krejcir said he intended to write a book that would give the Czech Republic its own Watergate scandal and he hinted that the Czech authorities knew all along that he would never be extradited from the Seychelles. "I am certain that the present political leadership and the police knew I was beyond their reach the minute they heard I was in the Seychelles. All their media statements about trying to get me extradited were just a smoke screen for the public. I consider myself innocent."
Here in Prague Krejcir's accusations elicited an angry response from finance minister Bohuslav Sobotka who said the fugitive billionaire was telling absurd lies in order to get his revenge on the ruling Social Democrats for breaking up his crime ring and continuing in their efforts to see him brought to justice here in the Czech Republic.
If Radovan Krejcir really wanted to get revenge he timed his story well. It hit the headlines less than 48 hours after a Transparency International report suggested that the Czech Republic was the third most corrupt state in the EU. It is not clear how the opposition will treat the accusations but, even if they don't add fuel to the fire, the fact that the claims have been splashed across today's front pages will not help the Social Democrat's image ahead of next years general elections.
Source: Radio Prague
Conspiracy to murder, money forgery, tax evasion, extortion, abduction - those are just some of the crimes that Radovan Krejcir is wanted for in the Czech Republic. In recent days the Czech police arrested five people who are believed to be his closest accomplices in a dangerous crime-ring which Krejcir allegedly headed or still heads. The head of a special police squad for fighting corruption and economic crime Jiri Novak said the police had plenty of evidence to nail all members of the gang. "We believe that we got all the big fish here. My team has been working on this case since last November - and the information and documents we have collected look pretty convincing. They convinced us and we hope they'll convince the state attorney."
Safe from his hideout in the Seychelles with his family around him and a Seychelles passport in his pocket, Radovan Krejcir dropped his bombshell-accusing the ruling Social Democratic Party of having accepted a 60 million crown bribe from him back in 2002 - officially a loan, but one that was never meant to be repaid in return for special favours. Speaking to reporters, Krejcir said he intended to write a book that would give the Czech Republic its own Watergate scandal and he hinted that the Czech authorities knew all along that he would never be extradited from the Seychelles. "I am certain that the present political leadership and the police knew I was beyond their reach the minute they heard I was in the Seychelles. All their media statements about trying to get me extradited were just a smoke screen for the public. I consider myself innocent."
Here in Prague Krejcir's accusations elicited an angry response from finance minister Bohuslav Sobotka who said the fugitive billionaire was telling absurd lies in order to get his revenge on the ruling Social Democrats for breaking up his crime ring and continuing in their efforts to see him brought to justice here in the Czech Republic.
If Radovan Krejcir really wanted to get revenge he timed his story well. It hit the headlines less than 48 hours after a Transparency International report suggested that the Czech Republic was the third most corrupt state in the EU. It is not clear how the opposition will treat the accusations but, even if they don't add fuel to the fire, the fact that the claims have been splashed across today's front pages will not help the Social Democrat's image ahead of next years general elections.
Source: Radio Prague
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
Czech student kills himself in protest against war and corruption
The death by self-immolation of a 19-year-old student in Prague in protest against conditions in the Czech Republic has shaken that country. On March 6, at 7:30 in the morning, Zdenek Adamec, a straight-A student, poured gasoline on himself and set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square in front of horrified commuters and other onlookers. A policeman attempted to put out the flames, but Adamec died after attempts to resuscitate him failed.
Adamec, who lived with his parents in Humpolec, 60 miles from Prague, committed his desperate act only a short distance from the spot where philosophy student Jan Palach set himself ablaze in January 1969 to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops.
Various factors contributed to Adamec’s suicide. Police had been investigating the youth in connection with his hosting a web site for a group of “darkers”—computer hackers who used computer and electrical engineering skills to cut the electrical power to whole neighborhoods. Adamec asserted that he had simply done a favor for a friend. According to his father, the police had been threatening him with two years in prison to extract information: “They had constantly exerted pressure on him so that he gave the information, but he was of a timid and vulnerable nature. It is awful that the police behaved so selfishly.”
The youth was apparently a loner, religious, somewhat eccentric, most content working at his computer. His mother said, “He thought they would put him in prison and he would have no books, no school, no Internet and no life.”
In a note Adamec left behind, he described himself as “another victim of the democratic system, where it is not people who decide, but power and money.” He criticized the conditions in Czech schools, asserting, “Drugs, violence, money and power—these are the watchwords of our civilization.”
Adamec posted another letter on the Internet a few hours before he made the trip to Prague and committed suicide. Confused as parts of it may be, Adamec’s note reflects the response of the most sensitive and intelligent young people to the situation produced since the downfall of Stalinism in 1989. The student directly identified himself with Palach, who termed himself “Torch number one,” by heading his note, “Action Torch 2003.”
He wrote: “We didn’t get any better even after the Velvet Revolution [in November 1989].... The so-called Democracy we gained is not a Democracy. It’s about the rule of officials, money and treading on people.” He went on. “The whole world is corrupted by money and is spoilt, depraved.
“It’s not too late for salvation, but if we continue like this we will soon suffocate in the filthy air or in war. You may have read it in newspapers or have seen in on TV. Every weekend there is shooting, even at schools. And who is the cause of all this?”
Adamec condemned war, and the US war plans in Iraq in particular: “And wars? Never-ending nuclear wars tests, we are all the time inventing new measures to kill each other. People should unite, not fight against each other.... Why do you think that Americans attack Iraq and look for another Osama? It’s just a population manipulated by the media and by the government. Iraq has the oil and Americans want it too, that’s the reason. Korea has nuclear weapons—it doesn’t excite them as much.”
Adamec returned a number of times to the degraded state of American society and its influence in the world. “Civilization leads to self-destruction. Have you ever seen the dumping grounds in the USA? Never-ending mountains of rubbish. And we all do the same every day—we come home and go immediately to the TV.”
He spoke about international violence and violence in everyday life: “And look at relationships among people? Look around you. Never-ending violence, almost every week a murder, in all the bigger cities there are homeless people. Mostly it’s not their fault. Addicts wandering on the streets, bribes and corruption everywhere, and what encourages it? The way we let our children grow up. We put them before the TV and that’s it. It’s easy. Already 10-year-old children look at violent movies.... And if you by chance have some problem, everyone turns his back. People like to see others suffer. It’s easy to hurt someone but very difficult to help. It takes a lot of work, but we should try.”
Jaroslava Moserova, who treated Jan Palach as a doctor in 1969 and is now a senator, told the press, “The situation in this country is not the same as it was then. But I have to say there is a great deal of despair arising among young people.”
Some commentators noted the coincidence of Adamec’s self-immolation with the inauguration of right-wing Vaclav Klaus as president. Joseph Broz, a freelance writer, suggested that the election of Klaus February 28 might have influenced Adamec. “This tragedy is a direct impact of the symbol in the Castle [referring to the seat of the presidency].”
Klaus is a reactionary mediocrity elected by the Czech parliament in its third attempt. Former dissident Vaclav Havel stepped down February 2 after 13 years in office. Klaus served as finance minister after the collapse of Stalinism and is closely identified with the introduction of free-market policies. He became prime minister after Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.
In last year’s parliamentary election, Klaus’s Civic Democratic Party received only 24.5 percent of the vote, its worst showing ever. The unreconstructed Communist Party obtained 18.5 percent of the vote, in an election marked by a high protest vote and a low overall turnout (58 percent of eligible voters).
While a small layer has enriched itself, economic conditions for wide layers of the Czech population are worsening. The unemployment rate in one of the most prosperous former Stalinist-ruled countries is 10 percent and rising, and in industrial areas in northern Moravia and northern Bohemia it is 25 to 30 percent.
The real income of working class families has dropped by 13 percent since 1989, and by 1997 the value of basic social benefits as a share of GDP had fallen by 44 percent. The purchasing power of retirees on pensions is 10 percent lower than before the “Velvet Revolution.” Social tensions are increasing, with racism against the Roma encouraged by right-wing, nationalist elements. The future for young people is bleak.
Nor is the despondency felt by Adamec unique to the Czech Republic. In his condemnation of corruption, the power of money in all aspects of life and the cynicism of politicians and the media, in his disgust with American dominance, he no doubt reflects the feelings of large numbers of youth all over the world.
That he felt this despair and saw no way out except through suicide is not primarily his fault. It is largely a measure of the prevailing ideological filthiness in eastern and central Europe, where the rule of the “free market” has been economically and morally disastrous for the vast majority. Nonetheless, Adamec’s tragic act is one that must not be emulated by others.
Without minimizing the depth of the Czech youth’s feelings or drawing fatuous lessons from his death, it is a reality that the global wave of protest and revulsion against the US war in Iraq opens up a different prospect for young people. Trotsky once noted that “peoples never resort to suicide.” He continued: “When their burdens are intolerable, they seek a way out through revolution.”
Source: World Socialist Web
Adamec, who lived with his parents in Humpolec, 60 miles from Prague, committed his desperate act only a short distance from the spot where philosophy student Jan Palach set himself ablaze in January 1969 to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops.
Various factors contributed to Adamec’s suicide. Police had been investigating the youth in connection with his hosting a web site for a group of “darkers”—computer hackers who used computer and electrical engineering skills to cut the electrical power to whole neighborhoods. Adamec asserted that he had simply done a favor for a friend. According to his father, the police had been threatening him with two years in prison to extract information: “They had constantly exerted pressure on him so that he gave the information, but he was of a timid and vulnerable nature. It is awful that the police behaved so selfishly.”
The youth was apparently a loner, religious, somewhat eccentric, most content working at his computer. His mother said, “He thought they would put him in prison and he would have no books, no school, no Internet and no life.”
In a note Adamec left behind, he described himself as “another victim of the democratic system, where it is not people who decide, but power and money.” He criticized the conditions in Czech schools, asserting, “Drugs, violence, money and power—these are the watchwords of our civilization.”
Adamec posted another letter on the Internet a few hours before he made the trip to Prague and committed suicide. Confused as parts of it may be, Adamec’s note reflects the response of the most sensitive and intelligent young people to the situation produced since the downfall of Stalinism in 1989. The student directly identified himself with Palach, who termed himself “Torch number one,” by heading his note, “Action Torch 2003.”
He wrote: “We didn’t get any better even after the Velvet Revolution [in November 1989].... The so-called Democracy we gained is not a Democracy. It’s about the rule of officials, money and treading on people.” He went on. “The whole world is corrupted by money and is spoilt, depraved.
“It’s not too late for salvation, but if we continue like this we will soon suffocate in the filthy air or in war. You may have read it in newspapers or have seen in on TV. Every weekend there is shooting, even at schools. And who is the cause of all this?”
Adamec condemned war, and the US war plans in Iraq in particular: “And wars? Never-ending nuclear wars tests, we are all the time inventing new measures to kill each other. People should unite, not fight against each other.... Why do you think that Americans attack Iraq and look for another Osama? It’s just a population manipulated by the media and by the government. Iraq has the oil and Americans want it too, that’s the reason. Korea has nuclear weapons—it doesn’t excite them as much.”
Adamec returned a number of times to the degraded state of American society and its influence in the world. “Civilization leads to self-destruction. Have you ever seen the dumping grounds in the USA? Never-ending mountains of rubbish. And we all do the same every day—we come home and go immediately to the TV.”
He spoke about international violence and violence in everyday life: “And look at relationships among people? Look around you. Never-ending violence, almost every week a murder, in all the bigger cities there are homeless people. Mostly it’s not their fault. Addicts wandering on the streets, bribes and corruption everywhere, and what encourages it? The way we let our children grow up. We put them before the TV and that’s it. It’s easy. Already 10-year-old children look at violent movies.... And if you by chance have some problem, everyone turns his back. People like to see others suffer. It’s easy to hurt someone but very difficult to help. It takes a lot of work, but we should try.”
Jaroslava Moserova, who treated Jan Palach as a doctor in 1969 and is now a senator, told the press, “The situation in this country is not the same as it was then. But I have to say there is a great deal of despair arising among young people.”
Some commentators noted the coincidence of Adamec’s self-immolation with the inauguration of right-wing Vaclav Klaus as president. Joseph Broz, a freelance writer, suggested that the election of Klaus February 28 might have influenced Adamec. “This tragedy is a direct impact of the symbol in the Castle [referring to the seat of the presidency].”
Klaus is a reactionary mediocrity elected by the Czech parliament in its third attempt. Former dissident Vaclav Havel stepped down February 2 after 13 years in office. Klaus served as finance minister after the collapse of Stalinism and is closely identified with the introduction of free-market policies. He became prime minister after Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.
In last year’s parliamentary election, Klaus’s Civic Democratic Party received only 24.5 percent of the vote, its worst showing ever. The unreconstructed Communist Party obtained 18.5 percent of the vote, in an election marked by a high protest vote and a low overall turnout (58 percent of eligible voters).
While a small layer has enriched itself, economic conditions for wide layers of the Czech population are worsening. The unemployment rate in one of the most prosperous former Stalinist-ruled countries is 10 percent and rising, and in industrial areas in northern Moravia and northern Bohemia it is 25 to 30 percent.
The real income of working class families has dropped by 13 percent since 1989, and by 1997 the value of basic social benefits as a share of GDP had fallen by 44 percent. The purchasing power of retirees on pensions is 10 percent lower than before the “Velvet Revolution.” Social tensions are increasing, with racism against the Roma encouraged by right-wing, nationalist elements. The future for young people is bleak.
Nor is the despondency felt by Adamec unique to the Czech Republic. In his condemnation of corruption, the power of money in all aspects of life and the cynicism of politicians and the media, in his disgust with American dominance, he no doubt reflects the feelings of large numbers of youth all over the world.
That he felt this despair and saw no way out except through suicide is not primarily his fault. It is largely a measure of the prevailing ideological filthiness in eastern and central Europe, where the rule of the “free market” has been economically and morally disastrous for the vast majority. Nonetheless, Adamec’s tragic act is one that must not be emulated by others.
Without minimizing the depth of the Czech youth’s feelings or drawing fatuous lessons from his death, it is a reality that the global wave of protest and revulsion against the US war in Iraq opens up a different prospect for young people. Trotsky once noted that “peoples never resort to suicide.” He continued: “When their burdens are intolerable, they seek a way out through revolution.”
Source: World Socialist Web
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