The court confirmed the guilt of Metrostav in the case of the Kladruby stud farm but refrained from imposing a penalty

Prague - The appellate court confirmed the guilt of the companies Metrostav, Metrostav Infrastructure, and Cettus, as well as the former regional manager of Metrostav, Jiří Mottl, in the case of manipulations with contracts for the renovation of the National Stud Farm in Kladruby nad Labem. Just like the first-instance court before, it did not impose further penalties as they had already been sufficiently punished in other cases.

The appellate panel of the Prague High Court thus dismissed the appeal of the prosecutor, who requested that the existing three-year ban on participation in public tenders for Metrostav and its subsidiary Metrostav Infrastructure be extended to six years. He also demanded that Mottl be sent to prison and that the punishment for Cettus be tightened. The court did not grant the appeals from some defendants who sought to be acquitted of the charges.

"The court considers the penalties imposed for other criminal activities to be sufficient," said the chair of the panel, Hana Navrátilová. According to her, the court assessed, in particular, the time that had elapsed since the commission of the acts. It also considered that in the meantime the companies changed their internal regulations and replaced their management.

The Prague High Court had already punished 12 individuals and one company - Chládek and Tintěra - in February. It imposed conditional or monetary penalties, similar to the regional court. In contrast to the first-instance verdict, it acquitted two other defendants, DOP Construction and Strabag.

The harshest penalty remained for former director of the construction company Cettus, Vladimír Nový. At the time of the contracts, in 2013, he was a representative of the investor and manipulated the tender for the preparation of project documentation and technical supervision. The appellate panel confirmed his three-year conditional sentence with a probation period of five years. He also received a monetary fine of 200,000 crowns.

The case concerns the preparation and implementation of the tender process in the project of the Restoration of the components of the national cultural monument, the Stud Farm in Kladruby nad Labem. The prosecution was related to the first and second phases of the restoration of the monument. According to the indictment, the actions of the defendants endangered a subsidy of 250 million crowns for the renovation of the stud farm.

The currently discussed part of the case was separated so that the first-instance court would not have to wait for decisions in other criminal cases in which they are involved. Subsequently, it found the defendants guilty but refrained from imposing penalties. Two other men received final sentences already last December.