Bitcoin Donor Jiříkovský Signals Willingness to Cooperate with Investigators in Court

The Brno Municipal Court has kept programmer Tomáš Jiříkovský — the central figure in the high-profile "Bitcoin case" — in custody. The hearing marked the first time Judge Ivana Otrubová, who will preside over the trial itself, saw the defendant in person; until now she had only reviewed his case through investigation files running to tens of thousands of pages.

Previously, decisions on detaining Jiříkovský, who was arrested last summer in a widely publicized police operation, were made by the Brno Municipal Court, with the Regional Court only reviewing them on appeal. Now that the case has been handed over to the trial court, however, the same panel that will ultimately deliver the verdict is also the one deciding on his continued detention.

Prosecutor Notes a Shift in the Defendant's Stance

According to the prosecution, the court kept Jiříkovský in custody on the same grounds as before: there is a risk he could flee or continue unlawful activity, given that he allegedly still has access to part of the cryptocurrency. However, prosecutor Lucie Šlamová told reporters after the hearing that the defendant had, for the first time, signaled a willingness to cooperate.

"The defendant has taken certain steps and changed his position regarding the operation of the darknet marketplace and the laundering of criminal proceeds. He did not provide detailed testimony, but he indicated the possibility of cooperation. We will work to build on this willingness, but I won't comment further for now," Šlamová said. Until this point, Jiříkovský had refused to cooperate with investigators — even after the Constitutional Court twice ruled in his favor, pointing to procedural violations in earlier detention decisions.

Prosecutors Seek 20 Years in Prison

The prosecution is seeking a combined sentence of 20 years in prison and confiscation of assets for Jiříkovský over running a darknet trading platform and laundering criminal proceeds. For laundering money by donating 960 million crowns worth of bitcoin to the Ministry of Justice, prosecutors are seeking an additional nine years behind bars.

Standing trial alongside Jiříkovský will be former Justice Minister Pavel Blažek, who accepted the billion-crown bitcoin donation on behalf of the ministry. Also charged are former deputy minister Radomír Daňhel and Jiříkovský's lawyer, Karim Tic, who investigators say orchestrated the entire scheme for transferring the cryptocurrency.

For Blažek and Daňhel, the prosecutor is requesting 6.5 years in prison each along with multimillion-crown fines, for intentional breach of official duty in accepting the bitcoin donation and for facilitating the laundering of criminal proceeds. For Tic, the prosecution is seeking eight years in prison, a fine of tens of millions of crowns, and an eight-year ban on practicing his profession.

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Source: novinky.cz