Vítkov arson trial enters its final phase, but press can’t hear wiretap evidence

Now that the summer break is over, the second half of the Vítkov arson trial has begun. The senate of judges led by Miloslav Studnička has begun once again to handle the charges of racially motivated attempted murder against four young men from the Opava district: David Vaculík, Jaromír Lukeš, Ivo Müller and Václav Cojocaru. They are charged with having thrown three Molotov cocktails into the home of an eight-member Roma family last April, lightly injuring two adults and seriously maiming an infant, Natálie Kudriková. The little girl suffered burns over almost 80 % of her body and will live with the permanent consequences of these injuries for the rest of her life in the form of scars, contracted Achilles’ tendons, and missing fingers.

During the first part of the trial, defendants Cojocaru and Müller claimed they did not know people were present in the building at the time of the attack. Witness testimonies make that claim seem unlikely. Defendant Lukeš had begun regularly visiting a lover in Vítkov about two months before the crime took place and regularly drove past the victims’ home. The fourth defendant, Vaculík, has refused to cooperate from the beginning with police, psychologists and the court. He is the only defendant who has not confessed.

The second half of the trial continued with the court hearing the remaining wiretap evidence. Thanks to Vaculík’s defense attorney, Petr Kausta, journalists were unable to hear it. Even though this is a public trial, Kausta did not like the fact that public television editors connected to recording equipment in the courtroom were going to have the same opportunity to hear the wiretaps at the same level of quality as the judges, the prosecution, the defense and the defendants. He incorrectly identified the recordings made during the first part of the trial, clips of which were being broadcast on television during Czech Television’s evening newscasts, as being somehow immediately available for live online streaming and therefore objected to the recordings being made. Judge Studnička, copying this error, granted Kaust’s motion and banned Czech Television from performing professional recordings of the trial.

Today, therefore, journalists were only allowed to hear the fact that music by the singer Daniel Landa was playing in the background of the defendants’ conversations and was captured on the wiretaps. However, what could be heard loud and clear were attorney Kausta’s complaints, which were joined by attorney Polišenská on behalf of defendant Muller. Kausta complained that the court had rejected the defense attorneys’ request that the adult arson victims be required to undergo psychological and psychiatric examinations. “Given the inconsistencies of the various testimonies made by the Malýs and by Siváková and Kudrik I consider such evidence to be pivotal and I once again ask the court to consider obtaining it,” Kausta objected. He also complained that the court had permitted the family’s attorney-in-fact Markus Pape to view his client’s correspondence, which he viewed as a violation of secrecy of the mail. In conclusion, he also complained that the defense had received part of the documentary evidence in a completely disorganized form. The evidence had not originally been part of the court file as state attorney Brigita Bilíková had not entered it into evidence, so it was delivered at the defense’s request in the form of the original police work.

The trial will continue until Wednesday with wiretap evidence and more witness examinations. Next week both sides should make their closing arguments. Presiding judge Studnička will then take time to decide the verdict.