Appeals court examines murder of Kutná Hora sect leader as defendants seek acquittal
Prague High Court is examining appeals today in the case of the death of a fifty-year-old sect leader from Kutná Hora. The defendant senior woman and dentist were sentenced to 13 and 12 years in prison respectively.
High Court considers appeals in case of death of Kutná Hora sect leader
Prague High Court is examining appeals today in the case of the death of the leader of a Kutná Hora sect, as reported by Czech News. Two women stand before the court — a senior woman and a dentist — convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to 13 and 12 years imprisonment respectively. Both claim they were merely fulfilling the man's wish to die.
Their defence counsel argue mental incapacity: the self-styled healer allegedly transferred his mental delusions to the women, thereby causing them to lose the ability to assess their actions. This conclusion was rejected by Prague Municipal Court — according to its judgment, the man acted manipulatively but rationally and did not suffer from delusions.
The death itself occurred in October 2022 in the senior woman's flat in Prague. The fifty-year-old man voluntarily ingested medication with calming and hypnotic effects. The dentist then cut him with a scalpel in the groin and wrist and administered an anaesthetic to him. The man died from acute poisoning by this anaesthetic. The women then waited to see whether the man's body would disappear on its own — as the sect leader had promised them before his death. When this did not happen, they reported the case to police together.
The dentist, who was also the victim's partner, gave an emotional statement about prolonged physical and psychological abuse and sexual assault by the sect leader. Court experts diagnosed her with battered woman syndrome. The court of first instance took the abuse and her previous clean record into account, and imposed a sentence at the lower end of the statutory range. The preliminary judgment also banned her from practising in the healthcare profession for four years and imposed mandatory psychiatric treatment.
Source: České noviny