The long awaited court session took place on Friday, 17 September, 2007. It turned out well for the Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir. The Czech Republic had made an application for his extradition before the South African court, but after a court in Johannesburg delayed ruling on whether Mr. Krejcir should be extradited to his homeland, he was further released on bail until the next session in August 2008. The visibly relieved Mr. Krejcir paid his bail of over three million crowns, said he was impressed by the South African judicial system, and walked away.
Khethiwe Mabena, a journalist for the South African daily, The Times, who was present in the courtroom, says the judge questioned the motives of the Czech prosecution as well as the length of the whole process.
“He believed that Mr. Krejcir was not running away from the Czech Republic for fear of prosecution. He believes that there was a conspiracy behind the charges that were brought against him and he said some of the charges date back to 1999 and that Krejcir was not charged with these charges, and why do they want him now.”
Radovan Krejcir has been on the run ever since his spectacular escape from his own
“He said that the reason why Krejcir had run away from the
The Czech Ministry of Justice says they cannot comment on a ruling by an independent court of a sovereign country, but Zuzana Kuncova, the ministry spokeswoman, blames the past government for the delays in prosecuting Mr. Krejcir.
“If the court says the proceedings take too long, I would like to point out that the current Ministry of Justice is dealing with a problem that originated during the term of the last government when Radovan Krejcir escaped during a house search. If this had not happened, we would not have to be dealing with this.”
Whoever’s fault it was that the proceedings took so long and the whole legal matter loses credibility abroad, we will have to wait until August 8th, 2008, to see if Mr. Krejcir will face trial in the