The Prague Post
May 12th, 2008
Real Estate Prague Prague Rentals Prague Apartments Prague Art & Antiques

Embassy slaying case to reopen

Doctors' decision that shooter was insane being questioned

By Kevin Livingston
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
(October 23, 2003)


Charlie Emeka was helping to clean out the last of the remaining items at the abandoned Nigerian Embassy earlier this month when he got the news.

Prosecutors were preparing to reopen the case against Jiri Pasovsky, a retired doctor from Melnik, central Bohemia, who had walked into the same building nine months earlier and gunned down Emeka's friend, Nigerian Consul Michael Wayi.

The embassy is gone now -- closed in August for reasons officials say are not related to the shooting. But the memory of the first foreign diplomat killed in Prague remains strong in the minds of the country's tiny Nigerian community, whose members say they only want to see justice carried out.

The February shooting of Wayi, 50, brought to light a tale of fraud, deceit and desperation. The subsequent September release of the confessed gunman also sparked a diplomatic row between the two nations and frustrated local Nigerians.

Responding to a request from the Nigerian government, prosecutors now say they want to re-evaluate a previous decision not to try the 72-year-old Pasovsky on the grounds that he was insane at the time of the shooting.

Nigerian locals say they are holding out hope that they will not again feel let down by a Czech legal system that has set Pasovsky free once already.

"We as a community are angry that the Czech justice system allowed him to go free," Emeka said. "It is a mockery. It is nothing like justice."

Pasovsky has admitted to killing Wayi and wounding a receptionist Feb. 19 following what witnesses described as a loud argument in the consul's office. The gunman had visited the embassy frequently in an effort to get Nigerian authorities to help him recoup close to 15 million Kc ($550,000) he had lost in a scam allegedly carried out by Nigerians who offered him a stake in an nonexistent oil pipeline.

Pasovsky, who collapsed following the shooting, told police at the time that he killed Wayi because Nigeria owed him money.

Petra Pavlanova of the Prague municipal state attorney's office said the case against Pasovsky, who could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted, was halted on the advice of medical experts.

She said a psychologist, a psychiatrist and a neurologist came concluded that Pasovsky was not sane when he shot Wayi. Based on the medical report, the prosecutor's office concluded that Pasovsky was not a danger to society and released him.

Pavlanova said pressure from Nigerian officials led her to seek out additional expert advice. "The decision [to release Pasovsky] was attacked by the embassy, which sent a diplomatic note," she said. "The court considered it a claim and reopened the case on the condition that more expert advice was needed. ...

"The case is back at the investigation stage and I cannot predict what will happen. Undoubtedly we know there was a murder and who committed it, but it has to be clear whether he was mentally stable or not. Then I will decide whether to start the prosecution or keep the same decision."

The Nigerian government, which now maintains relations with Prague through its embassy in Warsaw, has not formally responded to the decision to reopen the case. Alex Kefas, the Nigerian consul general in Poland, said his office has had no official contact with the Czech Foreign Ministry on the matter.

On the local level, Nigerian leaders said they are prepared to let the justice system run its course, despite their earlier frustration. Emeka, a businessman who has lived in Prague for nine years and who dealt with the embassy frequently, said he is ready to see how prosecutors handle the case now. Even if Pasovsky does not end up in jail, Emeka firmly believes, he should be kept off the street.

"If he is insane, then he should be left in the mental hospital," Emeka said. "How are we sure he is not going to shoot another Nigerian?"

Edward Asu, a corporate lawyer and vice president of the Union of Nigerians in the Czech Republic, said he had faith in the local justice system. "I don't believe it works for some people and doesn't work for others," Asu said.

He said the governments of both Nigeria and the Czech Republic should cooperate to stop the kinds of scams that, in this case, ruined the lives of two men. But, he added, "going as far as taking the law into your own hands is something that should not be condoned."

-- Lenka Ponikelska contributed to this report.

Kevin Livingston can be reached at klivingston@praguepost.com




Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.