Czech tennis player Kvitova's attacker given 11 years in prison

Olomouc, North Moravia, Jan 8 (CTK) – The Olomouc High Court increased the prison sentence given to Radim Zondra for his attack on Czech top tennis star and double Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova in 2016 from eight to 11 years today.

Zondra, 34, was originally convicted of causing severe bodily harm, but the appeals court re-classified the crime to robbery, the perpetrator of which faces a higher sentence level.

In December 2016, Zondra entered the flat of Kvitova, now 29, in Prostejov, south Moravia, under the false pretext of being a heating boiler inspector. He attacked Kvitova and seriously cut her left, playing hand. He left after she offered him 10,000 crowns, taking the money away.

Zondra pleaded not guilty again today and demanded that the case be sent back to the regional court. He claimed he could not have committed the crime as he had been at a construction site in Napajedla, south Moravia, then.

However, the court has concluded that there are no doubts about his guilt. A number of pieces of evidence, including the victim’s testimony, prove this, court panel chairman Vladimir Rutar said.

The court pointed also out Zondra’s previous criminal activities, in which he used the same defence saying he was at a construction site elsewhere when the crime was committed.

“Robbery is characterised by violence and an immediate threat. This is why we found the defendant guilty of an especially serious crime of robbery,” Rutar said.

The court took also Zondra’s previous criminal activities into account. In 2013, he was given seven years in prison for assaulting seniors.

His current prison term also includes the 2.5 years in prison he was sentenced to for giving advice to robbers who used it to brutally attack a lawyer in Lysice, south Moravia.

In the Kvitova case, Zondra was originally charged with extortion and forcible entry into a dwelling, but the regional court convicted him of severe bodily harm.

The state attorney, from the High State Attorney’s Office, today demanded that the act be reclassified to robbery due to the defendant’s property motive.

The police shelved the case of the attack on her originally in November 2017 since they did not find the perpetrator. They caught him in May 2018 eventually.

The crucial evidence in the case was Kvitova’s testimony, which the court assessed as trustworthy. Besides, Kvitova identified Zondra.

After the 2016 attack, Kvitova underwent a demanding surgery of the tendons on all fingers and several nerves of her hand in a special institute of hand surgery and plastic surgery in Vysoke nad Jizerou, north Bohemia. Her recovery took several months. She returned to tournaments in May 2017, at the French Open. Now, she is ranked world No. 7 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).

($1=22.626 crowns)

hol/sr/pvr,bas