04.09.2008 - Indian court decides on Czech scientists, issues verdict Monday
Petr Svacha, 51, from the Czech Latest news - 26-08-2008 ...
Bavaria and Austria urge Czechs to fight bark-beetle infestation ...
Rice says Czechs might travel to USA visa-free by year end ... Academy of Sciences' Entomological Institute, and Emil Kucera, 52, were detained on June 22 near the Singalia National Park, some 90 kilometers away from Darjeeling.
They allegedly kept more than 200 specimens of rare beetles and butterfly larvae, but they did not have an official authorisation to collect them.
The two men dismiss the accusations and say they did not enter the Singalia park at all.
The Foreign Ministry as well as the Czech embassy indicated that the situation around the court verdict was chaotic today.
The accused men attended part of the court proceedings, but they were probably told the verdict only in the local language, Opletalova said.
The verdict is to be officially known on Monday only, but the Czech Embassy will try to find it out on Friday.
The scientists' defence counsels tried to prove that the Czechs were collecting insect without a permission but only for non-commercial purposes and outside the natural park's territory, for which they would face a fine.
However, if the entomologists are found guilty of the charges, they face three to seven years in prison.
Their situation is complicated by the fact that they have signed the confession to the accusations.
The scientists claim that the confession is forged as someone may have abused the blank sheets that they had to sign for the police before they were arrested.
An Internet petition for the two entomologists' release has been signed by hundreds of Czech and foreign scientists.
(Ceske Noviny)
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