Man who ordered brutal murder in which victim was buried alive on Vidoule hill asks justice minister to review his sentence

Richard Svoboda (formerly Muradyan), the man behind a high-profile contract killing in Prague, has appealed to the justice minister to seek a review of his 28-year prison sentence. According to the High Court's ruling, he ordered the murder of a man identified as David A., who was buried alive for 250,000 crowns on Prague's Vidoule hill in May 2023.

It has emerged that Svoboda sent a handwritten letter from prison to the Ministry of Justice, asking Minister Jeroným Tejc (ANO movement) to file a complaint with the Supreme Court alleging a violation of the law in his favor. It remains unclear whether the minister will grant this request — first, the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office must assess whether there are grounds to do so. "The prosecutor's office has received instructions from the Ministry of Justice to review the entire course of the trial," said Petr Malý, spokesman for the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office.

Minister Tejc himself considers it unlikely that the request will be granted. He said he is, if anything, surprised that the defendants weren't sentenced to life imprisonment. "I haven't yet had the chance to review the results of the relevant department's assessment or study the case files, so I can't give a final opinion. But even now, I find it hard to imagine what new facts or arguments could convince me to file a complaint on the convicted man's behalf," Tejc stated.

Even if the minister decides not to file a complaint, the case will still reach the Supreme Court by another route: Svoboda's lawyer, Radek Šmerda, said he will file a cassation appeal on his client's behalf in the coming days.

Besides Svoboda, the High Court also sentenced the man who directly carried out the killing — Oleg Fedorov, a native of Moldova. According to case materials, in May 2023 Svoboda and Fedorov lured the victim, David A., to Prague's Vidoule hill. There, Fedorov was waiting with an accomplice disguised as a police officer. The men rushed at the victim shouting "police," threatened him with a gas pistol and knocked him unconscious. David A.'s unconscious body was dragged to a pit that had been dug in advance, where Fedorov buried him alive.

Municipal Court judge Lukáš Svrček, handing down an exceptionally harsh sentence, stressed that he wanted to send a clear message: "such behavior will not be tolerated in the Czech Republic." "The Czech Republic will not become the Wild West, where the criminal underworld and 'mobsters of various nationalities' settle scores in public," the judge said. He acknowledged that he had considered imposing a life sentence but concluded there were insufficient legal grounds to do so.

According to investigators, after the murder on Vidoule the perpetrators attempted to carry out another attack, but the plan fell through — the intended victim was saved because he came to the arranged meeting accompanied by his brother.

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz