Prague, Sept 27 (CTK) – Czech President Milos Zeman on Tuesday granted pardon that halts the criminal prosecution of a suspect whose mental disorder and a brain defect following a stroke makes him incapable of comprehending the meaning of the prosecution, Zeman’s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek has announced.
The man was prosecuted for obstructing the execution of an official decision and the eviction imposed on him.
According to CTK’s information, the man was caught driving a car without a driving licence.
This is the third presidential pardon Zeman has granted since his inauguration as president in March 2013.
The granting of pardon by having a suspect’s prosecution halted is called abolition.
Unlike “common” pardon, the granting of abolition must be co-signed by the prime minister, the Justice Ministry’s spokeswoman Tereza Schejbalova told CTK.
The toughest sentence the suspect could face was two years in prison.
A pardon (abolition) for him was requested by the state attorney who cited the suspect’s serious health condition.
In addition, even if the prosecution were completed, the court would probably only state the suspect’s guilt but refrain from his punishment in view of the long time that has elapsed since the suspected offence.
Before the early 2013 direct presidential election, Zeman said he would not grant pardons except for a limited range of humanitarian cases.
In December 2013, he transferred the power to grant pardons on the justice minister saying he considers it an “unnecessary monarchist element” in the Czech constitution.
Zeman’s first pardon this February targeted a man who had been sentenced to three years in prison for minor property crime, and was placed in hospital for health reasons after serving a part of this sentence.
In May, Zeman pardoned another convict for health reasons.
The step was challenged by the media which found out that the pardoned man was punished by courts 15 times before, including for repeated driving without a driving licence and for a failure to turn up in prison. The man suffers from diabetes but he did not cooperate with doctors in the past, the media wrote.
Out of Czech presidents, the institute of pardon was most extensively used by Vaclav Havel, who pardoned 1,247 perpetrators, in addition to 601 in his previous capacity as Czechoslovak president.
Zeman’s predecessor Vaclav Klaus granted 412 pardons.
