Courts have denied the appeal of a 17-year old who pushed a father-of-two onto the tracks of the Anděl metro station, tragically taking his life.
In January of 2020, a 52-year old man supposedly bumped into the juvenile while walking down the escalator, causing the 17-year old to stumble into his girlfriend. This was allegedly caught on camera but the video footage hasn’t been released.
After the scuffle on the escalator ended, the young man came up from behind the father-of-two and pushed him on the train tracks just as the train was approaching, presumably killing him instantly.
As a juvenile, the suspect only faces 3.5 years in prison and a 1.19 million CZK fine that is supposed to be paid to the victim’s wife and sons. A citizen of age would face between 8 and 16 years for the same crime.
The suspect, who apparently had a history of out-of-control aggression in school, said in court that he didn’t mean to kill anyone, but judges were not compelled with this argument. They determined that the juvenile was well aware of what would happen should he push a man in front of a moving train.
“The intellectual capacity of the juvenile defendants was undoubtedly sufficient for them to realize this,” Kateřina Hayes of the Prague City Court said.
“He has shown his utter disrespect for the life of another,” Vladimír Král, chairman of the senate said. “He hasn’t yet grasped that physical aggression against another person is completely unacceptable,” he said, adding that the juvenile was reacting nonsensically to something completely petty.
