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Czech High Court removes defendants' attorney from "machete case"

22 February 2013
2 minute read

The Czech Press Agency reports that Judge Eva Drahotová, the chair of Regional Court in Liberec, has informed them that the High Court in Prague has removed attorney Klára Samková from representing defendants in the case of the so-called "machete attack" in Nový Bor during which three people were seriously injured. "The High Court has decided that Dr Samková can no longer represent any of the defendants," the judge said.

Because the defendants now have no representation, Drahotová has cancelled Monday’s hearing in the trial. Samková has not yet received a written decision from the High Court but is considering appealing.

"I must speak with my clients about what to do next because they greatly dislike this decision," Samková told the Czech Press Agency today. She will evidently recommend her clients appeal the decision to the Constitutional Court.

"In my opinion there are grounds for a constitutional complaint. I will propose to my clients that we file one, if for no other reason than that there is no case-law on this issue, it’s all at the level of theoretical consideration," she said.

Samková advocates the view that the right to choose one’s attorney is one of the "strongest" rights a defendant has. "Any intervention with those rights must be exceptionally justifiable," she said.

A complaint against Samková was filed during a previous hearing of the case at the Regional Court in Liberec by attorney Romana Staňková, who had just been newly appointed to represent defendant Antonín Sinu. Samková stopped representing him in December after he partially described what occurred during the attack in a letter; his description contradicted the testimony of the other three defendants represented by Samková, some of who claim they were not even at the scene of the attack.

"If an attorney is removed for conflict of interest, then he cannot continue to represent any of the defendants in that matter. He might be able to exploit or misuse information obtained during his previous representation of the defendant whose case he has been excluded from," Staňková said during the previous hearing.

The Regional State Prosecutor had also previously proposed that Samková be removed from the case before the trial began. However, the High Court decided in favor of the famous attorney with respect to that motion.

Three people were injured during the incident in the "Pivní pomoc" bar in Nový Bor in August 2011, one of them so seriously that his life was endangered. Four alleged assailants have been charged with attempted murder and rioting. If convicted, the two older defendants face 15 to 20 years in prison or extraordinary sentencing, while the younger two defendants face sentences half that length. A fifth alleged participant in the assault faces between five and 12 years for battery and rioting if convicted.

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