Jablonec n.N., North Bohemia, May 23 (CTK) – Double contract murderer Jiri Kajinek, 56, who was serving his life sentence and whom President Milos Zeman pardoned, left the prison in Rynovice after 23 years in it yesterday.
After his release, Kajinek thanked the present journalists for having waited for him for several days.
He said he hoped his trial would be reopened. Kajinek pleads innocent.
Kajinek declined to disclose the address of his future place of residence.
“Everyone should not know this,” Kajinek said.
Zeman said in April he was not entirely convinced of his guilt.
The pardon includes a seven-year parole during which Kajinek must not commit any crime. The Regional Court in Plzen will watch whether he will it observe it.
A court in Plzen, west Bohemia, sentenced Kajinek to life in June 1998. He was convicted of shooting a businessman and his bodyguard dead in Plzen in 1993. Another bodyguard survived the attack. A businessman hired Kajinek as a contract killer.
Kajinek, before the killing a petty criminal, is probably the best-known Czech prisoner. He also gained fame by his spectacular escape from Mirov, the country’s toughest-security prison in north Moravia, in 2000. The police caught him after about six weeks at large.
The cause celebre prompted film-makers to shoot a thriller also called Kajinek that was finished in 2010.
So far, Zeman has granted seven pardons, but none of them related to a violent criminal act.
Before the 2013 presidential election, Zeman pledged not to grant any pardons except for strictly defined humanitarian cases.
