Feri was convicted mainly based on the testimonies of the three young women involved, which corresponded with other evidence. Credit: TOP09.
Prague, Nov 2 (CTK) – The Prague 3 District Court today sentenced former MP Dominik Feri to three years in prison for two rapes and one attempted rape, finding him guilty on all counts. However, the verdict is not definitive, as Feri immediately appealed to the Prague Metropolitan Court.
Feri, 27, has repeatedly pleaded not guilty.
The prosecutor proposed a prison sentence of about three years for Feri, saying that all three offences had been proven. Feri repeatedly denied committing any sexual violence, and his lawyers demanded his acquittal.
“The court took it as proven that the defendant committed sexual violence against all three victims,” said judge Lenka Hajkova.
She said Feri was convicted mainly based on the testimonies of the three young women involved, which corresponded with other evidence. The women’s credibility was confirmed by court experts.
Based on the verdict, Feri must compensate the victims with a total of more than CZK 500,000.
The prosecutor charged Feri in connection with three incidents, two of which she said occurred in his Prague apartment in March and November 2016.
According to the prosecution, Feri kissed and groped the two victims despite their non-consent, and subsequently performed sexual acts on them. One of them was 17 years old at the time, and the prosecutor alleges that Feri gave her a soft drink when she wanted to leave, after which she became “partially unconscious”.
Nevertheless, it was not proven that the woman had ingested an intoxicating substance, the judge said, adding that her state could have been caused by other reasons.
The third incident happened in 2018, according to the prosecution, when Feri invited a woman to the Chamber of Deputies for a possible position as an intern. According to investigators, he attempted to kiss and grope her, but she managed to leave, so the prosecution deemed the case to be attempted rape.
Feri has repeatedly denied any sexual violence. At the main trial and in his closing speech, he repeatedly referred to what he called inconsistencies in the women’s testimonies. He also said that the police and the prosecutor had taken “an alibi-seeking approach to his case” and that the prosecution had destroyed both his professional and personal life.
The police started investigating Feri after several women accused him of sexual coercion, harassment and violence. The testimony was published in the spring of 2021 by the websites Denik N and Alarm. Following the publication of the womens’ testimonies, Feri resigned as an MP and announced that he would not run in the autumn 2021 general election. He also left his party, TOP 09.
The district court began hearing the case in February this year, and further hearings were held in April and at the end of October. The public was excluded from most of the hearings due to the protection of the victims’ sensitive data.
