Klára Kalibová: A few years of good behavior cannot compensate for the gravity of the Vítkov arsonists' crimes

Today the District Court in Šumperk decided to conditionally release two of the perpetrators. This decision does not take the needs of the victims into account, and it is incorrect from that perspective.

Conditional release is an exception to the rules of serving prison time, and it has to be approached as such. This institution does not work on the principle of the perpetrator proving he has behaved decently in prison and that he will lead a proper life on the outside – it is an exceptional move that is meant to still take into consideration the gravity of the crime, its motivation, and its impact on the lives of the injured parties.

The impact on the life of Natálie Siváková in particular should be the court’s main measure when considering whether to let the perpetrators serve their full sentences or not. Her ongoing physical pain, mental anguish, the interference with her family and private life, and above all the irreversibility of her lifelong repercussions are the reasons why the court should have insisted the perpetrators serve their remaining seven years in prison.

The inability, or perhaps the unwillingness to empathize with the injured parties’ needs, one of which is that it is essential to see a fair sentence served in full, leads to their secondary victimization. An expert debate must be immediately initiated on the necessity of admitting injured parties’ perspectives into the decision-making on sentencing.

It is the victims whose lives have been most affected by the intentional attacks of perpetrators who were fully in their right minds. Such perpetrators deserve a sentence corresponding to the gravity of their crimes, which can under no circumstances be ransomed for a couple of years of good behavior in prison.