Man shoots cyclist in the face on bike path near Mikulov, Czechia

In early July last year, on the bike path between the village of Březí and the town of Mikulov in South Moravia, a man driving a motorhome fired a gas pistol into the face of a cyclist who had blocked his way. The Břeclav District Court had earlier sentenced the driver to three years suspended with a four-year probation period, and the Brno Regional Court has now confirmed that decision, rejecting his appeal.

A shot in broad daylight

According to the court, the defendant, a former soldier with an engineering degree named Válek, was driving along a bike path where cars are prohibited when a cyclist blocked his way by laying his bicycle down on the road. Válek jumped out of the vehicle with a gas pistol in his hand and, before the cyclist could react, shot him in the face from close range. The cyclist backed away, and Válek drove off.

The court convicted Válek of disorderly conduct, attempted bodily harm and extortion. The defendant himself insisted that he had acted in necessary self-defence: the cyclist, he claimed, had behaved aggressively and might have struck him.

“It all happened very fast”

The court, however, believed the cyclist and a random witness to the incident. “I told him he had no business being there, he started shouting and was already shooting. It all happened very fast, he was yelling at me to move the bike,” the victim told the court.

The witness described the scene in a similar way: “It was harsh: the defendant got out of the car with a weapon in his hand, behaved aggressively, and instead of saying that, for example, he had got lost, he immediately started shouting at us to get off the road. The victim barely managed to say two or three words.”

The appeal failed

Válek considered himself completely innocent and filed an appeal, which the Brno Regional Court heard on Wednesday. The defence lawyer merely referred to the written complaint, insisting that his client should be released from liability.

The state prosecutor opposed it: “The defendant’s conduct is highly dangerous to society. It is astonishing that he did not hesitate to accuse the victim of damaging his vehicle — solely in order to manipulate the investigation and justify himself with necessary self-defence. But his statements were entirely refuted,” she stressed.

The panel of judges chaired by Šárka Dufková rejected the appeal. “It was only by luck that the victim did not suffer more serious injuries — the defendant approached him, pointed the pistol at his face and fired. His excuse that he forgot to reconfigure the navigation so that it would not lead him along the bike path is merely a pretext. He wanted to take a shortcut,” the judge said.

Dufková recalled that Válek had previously been punished for driving at foresters who tried to stop him in a game reserve where he had no business being with a car. “Back then, it would have been enough to apologise and somehow resolve the situation. But no — the defendant immediately resorted to force and a weapon. The sentence imposed can still be called educational,” the judge added, noting that the man had faced up to eight years in prison.

Read also: 9 best cycling routes around Prague: from the Vltava embankments to Karlštejn Castle

Source: novinky.cz