Prague, Sept 19 (CTK) – The lawyers of the sister of a Czech man who was killed in London last September, but the perpetrator was acquitted by a British court, have lodged a complaint with the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg, the Prima television station said on Tuesday.
They want to reverse the verdict from this April.
If the court accepts the complaint, the Czech Republic will support the victim’s sister, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Irena Valentova said.
“At the moment, we will wait whether the complaint will be accepted by the European Human Rights Court,” she added.
Prima said this might take weeks, if not months.
The Czech Republic is ready to support the sister and it must be done by the government commissioner for the Czech Republic, Valentova said.
The commissioner wants to stress that the right to fair trial was not observed, she added.
The jury that decided on the defendant’s acquittal does not have any explanation of its decision, Prima said.
In April, Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek said the Czech Republic would not put up with the verdict and it would do its utmost to be given justice.
“The European Human Rights Court is the only body that can order new proceedings and that, I believe, is capable of securing justice for which every normal man must call,” Zaoralek said.
The case occurred last September. A closed-circuit television camera showed Raymond Sculley, 29, attacking the Czech, who lived in Britain for a number of years, with a chain with a bicycle safety lock and hitting him in the head several times. He then stood above his victim and witnesses testified that he told the lying man to look at what he forced him to do.
According to a post-mortem, the Czech bled to death.
The perpetrator who was not even found guilty of wilful killing claimed that he acted in self-defence.
