German gets 4.5 years in prison for illegal waste dumping in Czechia

A German court has sentenced Michael R., chief executive of the company Roth International, to 4.5 years in prison for illegally shipping waste into Czechia. His Czech aide, Vladimír M., received a two-year suspended sentence with a four-year probation period. The verdict of the regional court in Weiden is not yet final.

The main courtroom was unusually crowded: at least ten journalists from German TV channels, radio stations and newspapers attended the first hearing. They waited three hours for the verdict.

Michael R. was brought into the room in handcuffs and shackles by prison guards; he has been in pretrial detention since August 2025. Two defense lawyers shielded him with their bodies from photographers and camera operators. In his final statement he broke into tears: “I feel terrible. I would like to apologize to everyone and to my family. I ask for a second chance.” Vladimír M., a 57-year-old native of the Opavsko region, stood trial while free and briefly apologized.

In Czechia, the case has only reached prosecutors

While a verdict has already been handed down in Germany, in Czechia police have only passed the case of the illegal import of waste to the regional prosecutor's office in Bruntál, with a proposal to bring charges. According to Eva Michalíková, spokeswoman for the police of the Moravian-Silesian Region, charges of improper waste handling have been brought against four individuals and four legal entities.

Journalists tried to find out who is behind the import of roughly 600 tonnes of illegal waste into Moravia. The shipping documents mostly named the company Piroplastik: it has no production, website or assets, is registered at a virtual address, and is loss-making and in debt. Its owner, Marek Velička, whom journalists found at home in early February, said he knew nothing about any waste and that he was a “white horse,” meaning a straw man. The other owner, Romana Fabiková, declined to talk.

Miloslav Prokop, who acted on behalf of Piroplastik under a power of attorney, first denied any connection to the company and then acknowledged it. He said he was seeking permits for a plastic-recycling line using pyrolysis and admitted importing illegal textile waste, but said he knew nothing about hundreds of tonnes of hazardous waste from Germany. He placed the blame on Stanislav Kraus, who, he claims, misappropriated their permit. Kraus threw the journalists out and hung up the phone.

Where the German waste ended up

About 250 tonnes of waste ended up at the site of a former sawmill in Jiříkov in the Bruntál district, and at least 350 tonnes more at two sites in Horní Heršpice on the outskirts of Brno. The Czech Environmental Inspectorate established that this waste also originates from the German company Roth International: from June 17 to October 31, 2024, 16 shipments with a total weight of 317.15 tonnes were made from Wernberg-Köblitz to Horní Heršpice.

The dumps became a political issue. In March last year, the government of the Upper Palatinate ordered Roth International to take the waste back. The company went bankrupt, its director ended up in custody (as did the 56-year-old Czech truck driver), and the order was never carried out. In September last year, German authorities removed the waste from Jiříkov and the Brno suburb at their own expense.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz