Prague: Woman given suspended sentence for threats to police officer during identity check
A Prague woman threatened a police officer with death and damaged neighbouring doors during a police operation responding to noise complaints. The Constitutional Court dismissed her appeal.
Suspended sentence for threats and damaged doors in Prague apartment complex
Novinky.cz reports on the case of a woman from Prague's Barrandov district who threatened a police officer with death in mid-January 2024 and damaged several neighbouring doors during a police operation responding to complaints about noise disturbance.
Officers arrived at the apartment complex after 10 p.m. after neighbours reported loud shouting and an argument from one of the flats. The woman's husband cooperated with the officers, but his wife reacted differently.
"Following repeated previous requests from the police officer to prove her identity and a warning that if she did not do so and did not provide cooperation, she would be restricted in her personal freedom and taken to prove her identity, the woman told the officer: 'If you lay hands on me, I'll kill you, madam, I'm telling you,'" stated the public prosecutor's office.
The woman also attempted to slam the door in the officer's face, having earlier been let into the flat by her husband himself. He tried to explain to the woman that the officers were respectable and merely wanted to verify her identity.
The court found the woman guilty of threatening conduct intended to influence a public official and of damaging property belonging to others. She received a 10-month sentence with a suspended deferment for one and a half years and had to pay 60,000 crowns to the apartment cooperative as compensation for the damage caused.
The woman was dissatisfied with the verdict and filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court, citing alleged violations of her rights. The key argument was the alleged unlawful entry of the police officer into her home.
However, the panel led by reporting judge Pavel Šámal found no grounds for intervention. In the published verdict, Šámal stated that the officers had legitimate grounds to request identification documents and that the operation was proportionate.
"It was necessary for the police officer to prevent the door being closed, and she did so in the least intrusive manner possible – by standing with one foot in the door frame without entering further into the dwelling or escalating the intensity of the operation. It was therefore clearly not a case of forcible or unlawful entry into the dwelling by the police officer," Šámal wrote.
Source: Novinky.cz