Court sentences Czech man to six years in jail for ordering poisons from USA

The Regional Court in Zlín has sentenced a 27-year-old Czech man diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia to six years in jail and security detention on Wednesday after a joint Czech police and FBI investigation discovered that he had been ordering deliveries from the United States of highly poisonous dimethylmercury and abrin on the dark web in 2017 and 2018.

The defendant argued that he intended to use the poisons for committing suicide, but State Prosecutor Marek Vagai said in his closing speech that this statement had been refuted during the trial and that the amount of the poisons ordered could have killed tens, even hundreds of people.

The substances were smuggled in ampules inside a children’s toy and in a clock. However, it was found that the ampules actually did not contain the poisons, despite the defendant believing he was storing them at home.

The prosecution had originally charged the defendant with planning a terrorist act for which he could have been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison, but this was dismissed by the judge, because the defendant was not planning to use the substances in such an attack. The court verdict can still be appealed.