Prague, Jan 5 (CTK) – Bohumir Duricko, who shot dead enterpreneur Vaclav Kocka jr, an acquaintance of then Czech PM Jiri Paroubek, at Paroubek´s autograph session in 2008 and was sentenced to 12.5 years in jail, settled yesterday his dispute with Kocka´s common-law wife over a compensation he should pay to her and her sons.
Duricko consented to paying 550,000 crowns to the woman, Marketa Paleckova for infringing upon her right to family life, plus 150,000 crowns for court expenses.
Duricko shot Kocka, whose father ran the popular Matejska entretainment fair in Prague, during the autograph session in a Prague restaurant. Apart from imposing the prison sentence, the court ordered that the murderer pay 240,000 crowns to Kocka´s common-law wife and each of her two sons.
Paleckova, nevertheless, demanded a compensation of a total of 10 million crowns. She wanted three million for herself, five million for her son whom she has with Kocka, and two million for the other son she has with her previous partner.
They all shared a common household, she argued. In 2013, however, the court granted only a fraction of the claimed sum – 250,000 crowns to her and 250,000 crowns to the late Kocka´s son.
Paleckova appealed the decision, as did Duricko, who protested against the court expenses being set at several hundreds of thousands of crowns.
At the appeals court session yesterday, the defence lawyers of both parties to the dispute agreed to withdraw their appeals if Duricko pays a total of 700,000 crowns to the claimant.
Duricko nodded to the proposal, thereby settling the dispute.
In the past, the lower-level court pointed out that Kocka´s partnership with Paleckova had been unusual, as Kocka had two parallel households that he shared with his wife and his common-law wife (Paleckova), respectively.
Moreover, Kocka often appeared in public in the company of other women, and he divorced his wife only one day before he was murdered, the court stated.
($1=24.794 crowns)
