PRESOV, September 22 (WEBNOVINY) — Convicted Banska Bystrica gangland boss Mikulas Cernak will stay behind bars for the rest of his life. On Wednesday, the Senate of the Presov Regional Court turned down his appeal and also the appeal of his mother and confirmed the life sentence for Cernak handed down on November 10, 2009. It is not possible to file a regular appeal against the ruling of the court of appeals and the sentence is valid and effective. Cernak now can only request an appellate review of his case. Cernak was not present at the court’s public sitting, having asked the court to excuse him in a letter. His lawyers were absent too, while their substitutes stepped in for them. Cernak will serve his sentence in a prison with the strictest regime.
Mikulas Cernak was initially sentenced to 15 years in prison in November 1999, in the biggest gangland trial so far in Slovakia after he was found guilty of murder, kidnapping and extortion. After he appealed the verdict, the Supreme Court reduced his sentence to 8.5 years, a decision that shocked Slovakia. The Supreme Court acquitted Cernak of murder and kidnapping charges, leaving only the conviction for extortion in force. Mikulas Cernak has been behind bars since 1997, with two brief breaks.
The district court in Presov handed down a life sentence for the gangland boss in November 2008 after it found him guilty of committing all the six murders he was accused of and ordering the murder of businessman Milan Karcel, which Cernak did from prison. The prosecutor demanded a life sentence for the gangland boss. Judges said that legal requirements were fulfilled for a life sentence in this case. In its decision, the court took into consideration also a psychological expert opinion that came to the conclusion that re-socialization of Mikulas Cernak was impossible. Cernak appealed the verdict then.
After serving half his prison term, Mikulas Cernak applied for release on parole. He was briefly freed in November 2002, when both the Trencin District and Regional Courts stated that he could be released after serving half his sentence. However, then Justice Minister Daniel Lipsic lodged a complaint with the Supreme Court because Cernak’s crime is in a category where parole is only possible after having served two-thirds of the sentence at the earliest. Based on the minister’s complaint, the Supreme Court decided that Cernak must complete at least two-thirds of his sentence. However, after a Trencin Court ordered him to return to prison to complete the rest of his sentence, he fled Slovakia in the summer of 2003. Czech police arrested him and he was escorted back to Slovakia. In February 2007, after the court decided to free him, Mikulas Cernak was released from prison. However, the police were waiting in front of the prison to arrest him on charges of two other murders.
SITA