Fallout continues after murderers escape from Bory prison
The fallout continues from the escape earlier this week of two convicted murderers from Pilsen's Bory prison. The prison's director has already resigned, but two cabinet ministers are now involved in a row over who bears responsibility for the escape.
The escape has already cost the prison director his job, and some have called for the head of the prison service to resign. The case has also led to a row within the cabinet. Transport Minister Milan Simonovsky has said Justice Minister Pavel Nemec bears responsibility for the escape, something which Mr Nemec denies. However Mr Nemec's spokesman Petr Dimun has promised tighter security measures at the country's prisons.
"As far as controls at Bory prison are concerned, the Prison Service has introduced measures to change the security procedures which allowed this to happen. The measures will take the form of special, unannounced security checks as well as more frequent checks. That seems to be the only way at the moment of preventing such escapes. A second option, which is currently being discussed, is to buy special x-ray machines which would be used to screen all large packages leaving the prison."
The two escaped convicts were both involved in high profile murder cases. Rostislav Roztocil was sentenced in 1985 to 24 years in prison for the murder of an Egyptian student. Roman Cabrada was sentenced this year to 24 years for the murder of a German mayor and drug dealing.
Roztocil, who maintains his innocence, has escaped before, but was later recaptured. His sister has contacted the Czech media saying Roztocil is already abroad. She said he escaped in protest at the Czech judicial system.
This latest incident has highlighted continuing problems in the country's prisons, following a number of embarrassing escapes in recent years. Critics say it's high time the Czech prison system was completely overhauled to prevent such high profile escapes happening in future.
