Foul play suspected in 'suicide'

The suspicious circumstances surrounding the alleged suicide of local gang member Jan Zelený, whose criminal activity involved collaboration with some of the most elite detectives in the defunct police organized crime division OBOZ, raise more questions than answers.

Thirty-three-year-old Zelený - who was serving a 13-year prison sentence for armed robbery, kidnapping, and extortion - was found dead in a toilet at the Rýnovice prison in Jablonec nad Nisou in the early hours of March 11. On March 13, daily Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) reported the case was being investigated by police as a possible murder. Later that day, the same newspaper wrote that autopsy findings categorized it as a suicide by hanging.

Police have no photographic evidence of the hanging body, claiming that Zelený's cellmates allegedly cut him down, despite strict regulations prohibiting the possession of sharp objects by inmates.

"The autopsy showed that there were no signs of the use of force on his body," said MfD reporter Janek Kroupa, the author of a book on organized crime and the Berdych gang, a notorious crime ring that Zelený belonged to. "The results of the toxicology part of the autopsy have not been released yet, so we don't know for certain if he wasn't drugged."

Local reporting on the case has been muddy, Kroupa said, as many articles falsely identify Zelený as a former traffic cop, confusing him with another member of the gang, Jan Železný.

Both were key witnesses in a 2006 trial during which Zelený, who was not a part of the preliminary proceedings, was drugged after giving his first testimony in court. "After the incident, he had a bandage on his neck, and nobody knew where the wound came from," Kroupa said. "Then, he changed his testimony."

Past reports indicate that Zelený feared for his life. "I confessed to my crimes; I testified against other people. I received threats that I will not live till the end of my sentence," he said during the 2006 trial.

The Berdych gang, whose members included elite OBOZ police officers, was known as the largest organized crime group in the Czech Republic. Operating from 1995 to 2004, the gang extorted money from rich entrepreneurs and carried out various robberies, assaults and kidnappings. These were often staged using fake traffic controls, during which gang members employed equipment and uniforms supplied by their police connections.

The gang is also held responsible for the murder of Prague jeweler Václav Toman.

The number of the gang's actual members is hard to pinpoint. Several trials are still under way, and some members were never convicted, so estimates range from 85 to well over 100.

Kroupa notes that not all police officers charged in connection with the crimes of the Berdych gang were convicted, and the background of many orders that the gang received remains unclear.

On one occasion, the gang received orders to steal important documents from the energy logistics company Čepro, which was owned by the state until 1994 but is now privately run. "The files were with the architect Dian Ivanov, who was mugged by the Berdych gang," said Kroupa. "To this day, nobody knows who gave the original order."

In a 2006 MfD interview, gang leader David Berdych said, "The order was given directly from the police. … Some kind of politics was involved."

Kroupa, who has access to Zelený's letters and accompanied his grandmother to the inquest, said he doubts the death was a suicide. "Zelený wrote a letter to his grandmother just two days before the incident, asking her to send him a package with chocolate and cigarettes."

Zelený also had a girlfriend allegedly willing to wait for him until he got out of jail, Kroupa said, and had even lined up a job as an electrician. He had six and a half years of his sentence left, and half of that sentence could have been served on parole. "He would have been in his mid- to late 30s when he got out, which is not too late," Kroupa said.

Spokesman Pavel Hanták said the police organized crime squad (ÚOOZ), a separate unit, has been investigating Zelený's death since March 20. However, he "could not provide any detailed information regarding the incident because the department has only just received the file."

The truth behind Zelený's death lies with the aberrant prosecution of the elite police officers involved with the Berdych gang, Kroupa said. Several officers, such as detective Jiří Žofčin, were charged with collaborating with the gang but never got sentenced. Others, like former OBOZ head Josef Opava, had to serve long sentences for their crimes.

"If Zelený was indeed killed, whoever was behind it might well have the necessary means and connections to arrange for a cover-up," Kroupa said. "I think that the person who wanted Zelený dead is in prison."

Sarah Borufka can be reached at
sborufka@praguepost.com