Archive: Society | Crime Crime
Czechs held in Zambia return home
Three Czechs who were detained and charged with espionage in Zambia have
returned home. They showed up unexpectedly at their doorsteps at the end of
the year and have refused to disclose any information regarding the nature
of their escape. The Czech Foreign Ministry which made an all out effort to
secure their release through regular diplomatic channels has put an
information embargo on the case. More
Prague police chief arrested, contracts frozen in anti-corruption sting
The mayor of Prague has frozen all contracts signed by the City Police
force and ordered a full investigation after the head of the force was
arrested last week on suspicion of accepting a bribe. Vladimír Kotrouš,
Prague City Police force president, is now in custody after anti-organised
crime taskforce arrested him with a large amount of cash on his person. More
Three Czech nationals to be tried for spying in Zambia
The fate of three Czech nationals who are awaiting trial in Zambia on
suspicion of spying, remains highly uncertain. The three face 25 years in
prison for having taken photographs of an old plane displayed outside a
military base in Lusaka. The Czech Foreign Ministry has tried in vain to
intervene on their behalf and is now sending a special envoy to the country
to present the case in person.
More
Panorama
In this week’s Panorama: how walled-in windows can be a big attraction,
the Vltava river gets a symbolic lighthouse and, the nation’s fierce
one-eyed commander is back on his horse on Vítkov Hill - facing a new
enemy. More
Prisoners rebelling against worsening conditions in Czech prisons
An ongoing investigation into the recently thwarted mutiny in a number of
Czech prisons suggests that the plot had nothing to do with the notorious
Berdych gang as previously thought, but was incited by much more prosaic
reasons – the atrocious living conditions in Czech jailhouses. More
Czech museums on alert over rhino horns thefts
Thieves recently broke into a museum in the north-east of the Czech
Republic boasting a magnificent display of hunting trophies, and took what
they believed to be a rhino horn. Although this particular horn was fake,
the burglary was the latest in a series of similar incidents that have
occurred around Europe. The police suspect it might be the work of an
international gang making profit from rhino horns which are in demand for
their alleged medicinal properties. More
Prison mutiny thwarted
It has emerged that police and prison guards last week thwarted the biggest
ever prison mutiny in the country’s history. The plot was allegedly
hatched by jailed members of the Berdych gang -the largest organized crime
ring in the Czech Republic with links to former elite police officers and
is said to have involved dozens of prisoners in jailhouses around the
country. More
Police charge mother suspected of murdering four children
Police have charged the woman assumed to be responsible for the most brutal
child murder in modern Czech history. The 36-year-old is believed to have
murdered all four of her children with a knife on Friday before making an
unsuccessful attempt at suicide. More
A hijacker’s memoir: what happens when three teenagers hijack a plane over bad school marks
Fifty years ago today, three boys aged 14 and 15, boarded a regular flight
between Prague and Brno. But they had another destination in mind –
Munich, in West Germany. With no airport security, one of them had a
handgun he had taken from his grandfather, and after some 10 minutes in
air, they entered the cockpit and began to act. But the plan went terribly
wrong, and they all spent many years in prison. One of them, 65-year-old
Michael Procházka, recently put out a book, Confessions of a Plane
Hijacker, which recounts the whole story up to his departure to Australia
in 1969, where he spent the next 30 years of his life. More
Ethnic tension builds up in northern Bohemia
The Czech Republic is facing heightened ethnic tension between Romanies and
the majority population. In parts of northern Bohemia, animosity between
the two groups culminated on Friday after two public gatherings, staged
allegedly to protest against rising crime levels in the region, turned into
openly racist rallies calling on the Romanies to leave. The government
hopes to calm things down by increasing the police presence in the region.
But experts warn that more comprehensive action is needed to prevent
divisions between the communities from widening even further. More
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