Rynovice, North Bohemia, May 10 (CTK) – Ivana Zemanova, wife of Czech President Milos Zeman, met murderer Jiri Kajinek, 56, sentenced to life, in the Rynovice prison today, presidential spokesman Jiri Ovcacek has tweeted.
Zeman said in April he was seriously considering granting a pardon to Kajinek because he is not entirely convinced of his guilt.
Zemanova met Kajinek within Zeman’s official visit to the Liberec Region, on which she accompanies him.
“She inspected the prison, took interest in its operation and met its employees as well as prisoners and talked to them,” Petra Kucerova, spokeswoman for the Czech Prison Service, told CTK.
Kajinek was given a life sentence for double hire murder and attempted murder in 1998.
After Zeman assumed the post in early 2013, he transferred the power of decision-making on pardons to the justice minister. This, however, does not prevent the president from making a decision by himself, the ministry’s spokeswoman Tereza Schejbalova said previously.
In 2013 already, Zeman said on Prima commercial television that Kajinek’s case should be reopened and he repeated this two years later.
Last year, he said he has asked for Kajinek’s file, but he still said then he will not pardon him.
Kajinek has never pleaded guilty and he accuses courts of bias and says his trial was trumped up.
Some discrepancies have appeared in the case and new witness testimonies were made. Three justice ministers have filed a complaint about mistakes having been made in the investigation into Kajinek’s case.
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