The Nejvyšší soud has finalized financial penalties for a firefighter and a municipal official convicted over the 2020 toxic spill that devastated the Bečva river, dismissing their appeals in a closed session. The high court’s decision leaves in place fines for administrative and operational failures tied to the cyanide disaster.
The Supreme Court Ruling and Final Penalties
The Nejvyšší soud dismissed the appeals brought by two individuals convicted of professional negligence during the environmental disaster. Court spokesperson Gabriela Tomíčková confirmed that the high court decided the matter in a closed session. While the full written justification remains unavailable in the judicial database, the ruling exhausts standard appellate avenues, though both defendants retain the option to file a complaint with the Ústavní soud.
The case stems from the widespread contamination of the Bečva river in 2020, which poisoned more than 40 tons of fish along a 40-kilometer stretch of the waterway. Both defendants were convicted of obstructing the task of a public official. The Olomouc Regional Court previously adjusted the financial sanctions on appeal, lowering the penalty for municipal official Věra Šulová from 60,000 crowns to 40,000 crowns following a change in legal qualification. Fire commander Jiří Pochyla saw his financial penalty confirmed at 30,000 crowns.
Operational Failures and Regulatory Decisions
Investigators and courts traced culpability back to specific administrative and rescue omissions made years and days before the river turned toxic. Firefighter Jiří Pochyla directed rescue operations on September 20, 2020, in Choryni on the Vsetínin area as fishermen first spotted dead fish floating downstream. The court found that he negligently breached his duties by failing to actively protect the environment, conduct proper reconnaissance, and collect necessary water samples.
Further upstream in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, municipal official Věra Šulová approved a 2018 administrative decision allowing the company Energoaqua to store surface water in industrial lagoons instead of treated wastewater from a purification plant. Those lagoons served as the final safety buffer, meaning they could not intercept an unexpected discharge of inadequately treated industrial effluent.
Corporate Accountability and the Source of the Cyanide
While courts identified Rožnov-based company Energoaqua as the entity responsible for the cyanide poisoning, the corporation itself avoided criminal punishment. Judicial proceedings determined that because a specific individual perpetrator could not be conclusively identified, the legal entity could not face direct criminal liability. Energoaqua consistently denied any wrongdoing throughout the litigation.
Regulatory penalties followed separate administrative channels. The Czech Environmental Inspectorate imposed a five million crown fine on Energoaqua for discharging wastewater in violation of its operational permits. The Ministry of the Environment subsequently upheld that administrative penalty, concluding the regulatory phase of the corporate accountability process even as individual criminal appeals continued through the high court.