Constitutional Court refuses to reduce sentence to drug smuggler

The Czech Constitutional Court has refused to reduce the prison term of Emil Novotny, who was sentenced in Thailand for drug trafficking to 50 years in jail. Mr Novotny was arrested in Thailand with over four kilograms of heroin on him in 1995. He spent nine years in Thai prisons and since 2004 he has been serving the rest of his sentence, reduced by amnesties, in the Czech Republic. At 31 he is yet to serve 17 years in prison. Mr Novotny's lawyer had argued the length of the sentence does not correspond to Czech legal standards.