Olomouc, North Moravia, Dec 22 (CTK) – A Czech court sentenced bootleg alcohol mafia boss Radek Brezina to 13 years in prison and property forfeiture yesterday.
The court also found the other gang members guilty. A total of eight men were charged in the case. All except for one were sent to prison.
Two of the defendants appealed the verdict on the spot, while the other six and the state attorney took time for consideration.
According to the indictment, Radek Brezina with his brother and other five gang members deprived the state of 6.4 billion crowns in taxes from trading in bootleg spirits.
The gang members were found guilty of participation in an organised criminal group and serious tax evasion.
The gang boss’s brother and his close aide, Tomas Brezina, was sent to prison for four years and he was also sentenced to property forfeiture.
He was the only one to be given the status of collaborating defendant since he had considerably helped uncover the criminal activities of the whole gang.
Another accomplice of the gang boss, Lubomir Kalac, was given nine years and two months behind bars as well as property forfeiture.
The other four men are to spend from six to 12 years in prison, while the highest sentence was imposed on Radek Mensik, executive of Brezina’s Moravia-Chem company. It was also the source of the illegal alcohol.
The eighth charged man, Tomas Pantlik, who was running an illegal alcohol storehouse in Olomouc, was found guilty of complicity or abetting an organised criminal group. He was given a three-year suspended sentence.
The damage calculated by court is slightly lower than the indictment has described since it does not include the damage caused by the gang in 1998-2001. The court halted the prosecution for this period yesterday.
The Czech police started focusing on the alcohol mafia after the methanol scandal that broke out in autumn 2012. More than 40 people died of methanol poisoning after drinking illegal tainted spirits and dozens suffered from serious health troubles.
The police organised several raids, seized a few million litres of untaxed ethanol and detained tens of suspects of dealing with bootleg spirits.
All defendants appeared in court to hear the verdict yesterday.
Except for Radek Brezina, they are all prosecuted without being taken into custody. Brezina was escorted to the trial by masked prison service guards with submachine guns from the prison where he is serving a 16-month sentence for hiding arms in a former plant.
($1=24.947 crowns)
