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The original of the paper below was published by Lidove Noviny, a major Czech newspaper, on 21 November 2003 and is available online. Instead of criminals we put the victims in jailIt is about time for the president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus to have a closer look at the H-System building company case. Our justice system can really be proud now. Instead of the delinquents, the victims are put in jail. Yesterday the newspapers announced a turnover in the case of the company called H-system who went bankrupt after collecting savings from people but never building the houses they promised. The judge Kydalka put two leaders of the Svatopluk Cooperation in detention. Let us recall what have happenedTo put it straight, the Cooperation was founded by the ripped-off customers so that they could, after pouring additional money into the business, finish their houses, without even having a guarantee of the ownership. Not all of the customers decided to do so. Some chose to go to the court instead, to claim their money back. Naturally they won't, most likely, see any of it. If there is any funds left in the H-System Company the state and banks would be the first in the line. However, the customers that went to the court hired a famous lawyer (a leader of one of the coalition parties) Hana Marvanova who, among other things, decided to fight for their case by accusing the other part of the customers, joined in the Svatopluk Cooperation, of criminal activities. Allegedly, the Svatopluk Cooperation have lessened the assets in bankruptcy by building the houses. The clients that went to the court felt outsmarted by the members of the Cooperation; after all, some of them already live in the new houses. The court followed this way of reasoning and put the chairman of the Cooperation Ivan Kral, who works as a technician for the Czech Airlines, in detention for several months once already. Now he is in jail again. Moreover, the vice-chairman of the Cooperation, Pavel Streda, who is a physicist at the Academy of Sciences, was also sent to jail for witness tampering. What happened? Well, in June this year the Svatopluk Cooperation sent a letter which informed the members, beside the usual Cooperation agenda, that the judge Kydalka was calling up the Cooperation members and asking unexpected questions which were not concerned exclusively with the H-System Company activities."Therefore we ask you to try to recall all what happened at the end of the year 1997 and during the year 1998, before you go to the questioning. This way you can help the accused Cooperation leaders." Please, read the sentence once again. While thieves are walking freely in the streets and even a murder attempt is not always yields detention, these words are apparently so criminal and dangerous that their authors must be put behind the bars. Moreover, the Cooperation leaders are no plungers who would speculate how to rip-off other people. They tried to convince everyone who lost their savings because of the H-System Company to join the Cooperation but were only partly successful. Ivan Kral and Pavel Streda are not in Mafia, are not threatening anybody, and are not even particularly rich to attract some people's vicious thoughts that a little inconvenience was only appropriate. They have never had money to spare and because of that they were caught in the nineties by the exceptionally low prices of the houses offered by the H-System Company. The people simply wanted to have a home, get married, raise children. Instead, they had bad luck but, at the same time, a strong will not to let things go. According to the law, they may have lessened the assets in bankruptcy by finishing the houses they already paid for, although this has been preapproved by the liquidator. Well, and they will be punished. Beside the money they paid to the H-System Company, they invested more so they could finish the houses (or in many cases build them from scratch) and they will pay even more to the new liquidator. A simple house without a basement located 20 kilometers from Prague will then cost them 3 or 4 million CZK instead of the original 1.5 million offer. However, this seems not enough for the judge and the prosecutor. The detention over Christmas (and it would be the second Christmas for Kral spent in jail) will show the world how "determined" our justice can be. Lidove noviny, 21 November 2003,
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