Prague, Aug 20 (CTK) – The Prague Municipal Court yesterday sentenced Dalibor Skopan, 30, to 28 years in prison for having brutally murdered an elderly historian and his wife in their flat in Prague on January 31, 2014.
“The court had no doubts because the suspect fully confessed to the crime,” court panel chairman Tomas Durdik said.
According to previous information, the victims were Jiri Fiedler, 78, a pioneer of Jewish heritage research, and his wife Dagmar, 74.
Fiedler issued a book on Jewish sights in the Czech Republic and he created an online database of Jewish communities on Czech territory.
The court decided to impose an exceptional sentence on Skopan as the murders were aggressive, brutal and agonising and the victims were helpless. It said Skopan behaved rationally after the crime when he took the victims’ money and jewels and tried to get rid of all evidence.
Skopan’s lawyer asked for a less strict punishment, arguing that his client confessed to the crime and had a clean criminal record.
The verdict has not taken effect yet.
Skopan stabbed the victims many times, first the man and then the woman, and they bled to death within tens of minutes. He then robbed them and put on the gas stove, but, luckily, the flat did not explode or go on fire and nobody else in the apartment building was harmed.
Skopan contacted the historian over his interest in architecture and Jewish issues. He later wanted to ask the old man for some money, but he did not do so and he finally killed the elderly couple.
kva/dr/ms