Hradec Kralove, East Bohemia, July 13 (CTK) – A regional court sentenced two Slovaks, one Czech and one Ukrainian to five to 14 years in prison for having kidnapped businesspeople from Slovakia to the Czech Republic on Thursday, court spokesman Jan Kulhanek has told journalists.
The court ruled that in 2016 they had abducted the businesspeople from Slovakia to the Czech Republic, and one year before three of them had abducted and tortured a businessman who later died, Kulhanek said.
The verdict has not yet taken effect.
The court sent one of the defendants to 14 years in prison, two to 12 years and one to five years.
Two of them were expelled from the Czech Republic.
According to the indictment, the two Slovaks, one Czech and one Ukrainian were involved in the abduction of a businessman from Kosice, east Slovakia, in 2016.
They attacked him and forced into a car where they threatened him and demanded money from him.
They drove him to the Czech Republic where they forced him to collect 75,000 crowns from a cash dispenser. They were then detained by the police.
It transpired during the investigation that in June 2015, three of the defendants attacked a businessman whom they drove into a house where they tortured him in order to glean the information where his money was hidden. The man then died and the kidnappers hid his body.
The abducted businessman himself had a criminal past. He was also convicted of abduction which happened in January 2012.
