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Justice misses Zelezny againBy Rene Jakl Police and courts can't put convicted rapist behind bars Legal authorities who allowed convicted rapist David Zelezny to remain free for 19 months after he was convicted and sentenced now say that they cannot locate him. Judge Ivana Neffova said she issued an order to arrest Zelezny in early June. He had been convicted of raping and threatening to kill a 21-year-old woman. Zelezny is the elder son of Vladimir Zelezny, general director of TV Nova and one of the country's richest and most influential men. Since the arrest order was issued, police seem to have succeeded only in warning the younger Zelezny that his arrest was imminent. Now they report that they are unable to locate Zelezny. He has been rumored to be in Switzerland, but a man claiming to be Zelezny called The Prague Post and said he is still in the Czech Republic near Prague. He denied that he was running from the law. Even though police have been unable to locate him for more than two months, Neffova said on Aug. 24 that she had not yet decided to revoke his 750,000 Kc ($23,700) bail. A spokesman for the Prague Police was unable to determine on Aug. 24 whether Zelezny's passport has been taken from him. In June, Neffova made a request that the passport be frozen. After she issued the arrest order, Neffova said that a police officer from the Prague 2 District Police went to Zelezny's office and reported that he wasn't there. Later, Zelezny telephoned the officer, but instead of trying to ascertain his location, the officer told him right away that she was supposed to escort him to jail. Neffova said that Zelezny promised over the phone to stop by the police station but never did. The judge added that the police officer also discussed the legality of the court order with Zelezny. "It was unbelievable," the judge said. Neffova said that she then asked the police officer whose orders the officer was following. The officer replied that they were dealing with Mr. Zelezny and they had to inform him that they were to take him to jail. "This convinced me that police have no intention of putting him in jail," Neffova said. In addition, according to Neffova two police units sent to seek Zelezny where he was believed to be staying refused to do so because his permanent address was not in their area. Interior Minister Vaclav Grulich is also unsatisfied with the way police have handled such cases. "It will be a serious task for the new police president [Jiri Kolar] to change this," he said. Neffova said that according to her information, the police officer in question hasn't been punished at all, even though Neffova filed a complaint with the officer's supervisor. State police spokeswoman Ivana Moosova said that she believes the police have handled the Zelezny case fairly. "He is being sought nationwide," Moosova said. "There are 19,000 people who police are looking for. We can't take special steps just because of one man." Neffova says that a loophole exists in the law, which theoretically permits a convicted criminal to stay out of prison for 10 years or more if he submits a request for a medical exemption and then keeps submitting new requests just before the court turns down the previous request. German lawyer Arthur Braun from the Prague branch of law firm Norr, Stiefenhofer & Lutz said that judges in Germany also allow a convicted criminal to stay out of prison for medical reasons, but that nobody would be successful more than once. No German judge would allow a criminal to make a fool of him, Braun said. "Here [in the Czech Republic] if you have the money and a clever lawyer, it makes a difference. Not everybody seems to be treated equally in the courts here." In May, Zelezny's lawyer, Tomas Sokol, filed a request to retry the case, but legally that doesn't result in any postponement in serving a prison sentence. Besides the Prague West District Court case, Zelezny faces another rape accusation in the Kladno District Court. He is also being investigated by police in Prague 6. The investigator in that case refused to discuss what Zelezny is suspected of doing.
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