Court of Appeals reduces sentence of former regional governor Šulc in ROP Northwest case to conditional term
Prague High Court has changed a four-year custodial sentence for Jiří Šulc to a three-year conditional sentence with a five-year probation period. The defence is considering an appeal.
Šulc receives conditional sentence for abuse of authority; defence considering appeal
The appellate panel of the High Court in Prague has imposed a three-year conditional sentence with a five-year probation period on former governor of the Ústí Region Jiří Šulc for abuse of authority by a public official in the Regional Operational Programme (ROP) Northwest case. As Czech News reports, the court thereby reduced the original first-instance judgment, according to which Šulc was to spend four years in prison. The ruling is final.
Šulc's lawyer Daniel Volák said after the hearing that his client continues to maintain his innocence. "We were partially successful. My client faces no prospect of imprisonment. The appellate panel deemed the custodial sentence to be disproportionate," said Volák. He also did not rule out filing an appeal: "Based on the content of the written reasons for the judgment, we will consider an appeal."
In addition to the conditional sentence, the appellate panel upheld a fine of 300,000 crowns and a five-year ban on holding office for Šulc. The court also imposed on him an obligation to compensate the Ústí Region for damages of approximately 170,000 crowns.
Panel chairman Michal Hodoušek stated in his reasoning that the regional court in Ústí nad Labem made no error in assessing Šulc's case. The reason for reducing the sentence was the length of time that had elapsed since the offence was committed. "And that time is indeed substantially long," Hodoušek noted. According to his remarks, Šulc has since lived an orderly life and committed only one act in the course of the extensive case.
The defence argued in the appeal that the first-instance court had not sufficiently proved Šulc's active involvement in the tender procedure in which Petr Kušnierz was successful. Volák claimed that his client merely received emails from other defendants, did not respond to them himself, and that the tender procedure was transparent. He proposed that Šulc be acquitted. The appellate panel rejected these arguments: according to Hodoušek, the email correspondence clearly shows that Šulc participated in the criminal conduct and that he dealt with other co-defendants in person as well.
The ROP Northwest case concerns the distribution of European funds in the years 2008 to 2011. Šulc then held the position of chairman of the committee of the Regional Council of the Northwest Cohesion Region. According to the indictment, together with other persons, he participated in deliberately placing Kušnierz at the head of the office, who had been repeatedly convicted of machinations with European funds. The state prosecutor contends that the defendants manipulated the allocation of European funds totalling 14 billion crowns.
Šulc's case was separated for independent proceedings on health grounds — the former governor suffered a stroke, has difficulties walking and communicating, and suffers from other health complications. He excused himself from today's appellate hearing.
The main proceedings in the ROP Northwest case have not yet concluded. Before the court stand more than twenty people accused, among other things, of damage to the financial interests of the European Union, securing advantages in the award of public contracts, extortion and other criminal offences. Two of the defendants have expressed interest in concluding a plea agreement, the rest deny guilt.
The prosecution has identified businessman and former politician Alexander Novák and businessman Daniel Ježek as the main actors in the organised criminal group. Among the defendants are also former governor of the Ústí Region Jana Vaňhová, former governor of the Karlovy Vary Region Josef Novotný, former deputy governors Pavel Kouda and Arno Fišera, former director of ROP Northwest Petr Vráblík and former mayor of Most Vladimír Bártl. The case file comprises several thousand pages.
Source: České noviny