Czech court gives businessman Bechara six-year sentence for fraud

In 1994-1997, Bechara, who is a businessman of Lebanese origin, took out a number of loans that he did not pay. It is clear that Bechara could have never paid the money back, judge Pavel Silhavecky told CTK.

The verdict has not yet taken effect as both Bechara and the state attorney may decide to appeal it.

As Bechara who stays abroad repeatedly did not attend the court proceedings, an arrest warrant was issued on his name.

Bechara arrived in then former communist Czechoslovakia as a student. In 1999 he was taken into custody over suspected fraud in the Czech Republic and he spent three years in a custody prison.

Bechara who has Slovak citizenship was also tried in court in Slovakia.

Earlier this year, a Bratislava court reduced the three-year prison sentence imposed on him for fraud to two years with a 2.5-year probation. In another fraud case he was acquitted of charges in March in Bratislava.

The Slovak police again arrested him at the request of Czech courts in end-2006 over embezzlement of hundreds of millions of crowns.

Bechara attempted suicide behind bars. Shortly after transfer to the Czech Republic he was released in July 2007. He then claimed he fears for his life.

According to the Czech police he is a member of a group of people who in 2002 kidnapped the father of the Czech fugitive billionaire Radovan Krejcir, Lambert.

The group allegedly demanded that Lambert Krejcir pay the debts of his son, but he died during the kidnapping.

Media said Bechara is the crown witness against Radovan Krejcir.

He is also a witness in the case of the kidnapping of businessman Jakub Konecny of which Radovan Krejcir has been accused.

($1=17.951 crowns)

Autor: ČTK
www.ctk.cz