Zlin, South Moravia, July 27 (CTK) – The Zlin Regional Court acquitted five people and the Excalibur Army and Real Trade Praha firms of charges of storing banned explosives in the Vrbetice ammunition dump in the vicinity of Zlin on Wednesday.
If found guilty, the individuals face up to 12 years in prison and the firms might be liquidated.
State attorney Leo Foltyn proposed a suspended sentence for two defendants and three to 6.5 years in prison for the other three. He also wanted the firms to be fined with ten and five million crowns.
The defence lawyers demanded an acquitting verdict. The court accepted the defence arguments.
Court panel chairman Jiri Dufek has concluded that the firms did not store mines in Vrbetice, but only their neutral parts without initiators, which is not banned. Consequently, they did not commit a crime.
According to the charges, Real Trade Praha, a trading agency connected with Excalibur Army, bought military materiel, including 269 MON-100 mines and 232 MON-200 mine, from a Hungarian subsidiary of Excalibur Army at the beginning of 2012.
Foltyn says those were anti-personnel mines that are banned both by Czech law and international regulations following up the Ottawa Treaty (the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction).
Army commissioner Andrej Cirtek says the convention does not ban all anti-personnel mines, but only the mines that detonate by the presence of or contact with a person.
Arms dealer Jaroslav Strnad dismissed in court previously that his firm Excalibur Army had transported banned materiel to the Vrbetice dump. The firm has long been trading with Hungary and the mines were bought in a package with other materiel, he added.
The persons and firms were prosecuted on suspicion of development, production and possession of banned combat means and violating the duty connected with issuance of a permit and licence for foreign trade in military materiel.
The defendants were the Real Trade Praha board chairman and the Excalibur Army executive, Petr Kratochvil, former Real Trade Praha confidential clerk Ivana Linhartova, former Real Trade Praha board deputy chairman Vit Paulicek, Excalibur Army chief arms trader Roman Stika and Frantisek Machuca, Excalibur Army former warehouseman in Vrbetice and current mayor of Bohuslavice nad Vlari.
Two ammunition dumps exploded in the Vrbetice complex on October 16 and December 3, 2014. Both dumps were leased by the Imex Group firm, seated in Ostrava, north Moravia. Two of its employees died in the first blast, which was followed by 355 uncontrolled explosions.
The case of the storage of allegedly banned explosives is not connected with the blasts in Vrbetice. The mines were found during an inspection of the facility in December 2014.
