The Supreme Court has received a complaint from Justice Minister Eva Decroix (ODS) in relation to the bitcoin case, according to the InfoSoud judicial database, in which she points to a violation of the law in favour of convicted Tomas Jirikovsky.
The Regional Court in Brno returned most of the seized electronics to Jirikovsky, who was released on parole, and he thus gained access to bitcoins worth several billion crowns. He donated part of that amount to the Justice Ministry, which led to the resignation of ODS’s Minister Pavel Blazek.
According to statistics, the Supreme Court usually decides on complaints over violations of the law within two months and without a public hearing. However, the length of the proceedings in the Jirikovsky case cannot be predicted, said court spokeswoman Gabriela Tomickova. The police National Centre against Organised Crime (NCOZ) recently took over the case file from the regional court, and it is unclear when the court will request it or when it can receive it.
The Decroix complaint was assigned to a Supreme Court panel composed of Petr Skvain, Antonin Drastik and Tomas Durdik. These three judges issued a ruling in 2023 that opened the way for Jirikovsky to regain at least some of the electronic devices with access to the bitcoin wallets.
At the time, the Supreme Court insisted that the regional court should not order the deletion of all the data on the seized devices, but should rule individually on particular computers, phones and other technology. The regional court eventually returned most of the devices without deleting the data.
A ministerial complaint is a legal tool that allows a review of final decisions by lower-level courts if there is reasonable suspicion that a violation of the law has occurred. If the Supreme Court finds that the law has been violated to the detriment of the defendant, it may overturn the decision under challenge, order a new hearing, or make a ruling itself. However, if it finds that the law has been violated in favour of the defendant, it will deliver only an “academic judgment” with no direct impact on the case.
According to statistics, the Justice Minister filed 64 complaints over violations of the law last year, and the Supreme Court granted 52 of them.
The most high-profile recent complaint over a case was one involving the rape of a child whose perpetrator, her stepfather, was given only a suspended sentence. The Supreme Court ruled that the sentence was disproportionately low. It could not overturn the challenged verdict, but its legal opinion will serve as guidance for future decisions in similar cases, which could theoretically also apply to Jirikovsky’s case.
Jirikovsky, previously convicted of embezzlement, drug trafficking and illegal weapons dealing, donated around CZK 1 billion of the bitcoins he had accessed through the returned equipment to the Justice Ministry. His lawyer Karim Titz told the media that Jirikovsky had wanted to deduct the donation from his taxes.
Blazek resigned as the justice minister four months before the parliamentary elections because of the controversial donation. His successor, Decroix, stated before taking office that she would like to clarify the circumstances surrounding the acceptance of the gift. Law enforcement agencies are also investigating the case.
