Czech Arsonist Who Killed 11 Sentenced To Life

A Czech arsonist who killed 11 people after starting a fire in a high-rise apartment building in 2020 was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday, a court spokeswoman said

Prague, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Nov, 2021 ) :A Czech arsonist who killed 11 people after starting a fire in a high-rise apartment building in 2020 was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday, a court spokeswoman said.

Six people, including three children, died in the fire while five others jumped to their deaths to escape the building in the eastern city of Bohumin in August 2020.

Veronika Ralevska, a spokeswoman for the regional court in nearby Ostrava, said the arsonist identified by local media as 55-year-old Zdenek Konopka had struck a plea deal with the prosecutor to avoid a standard trial.

"The court accepted the agreement in its submitted form," Ralevska told AFP, adding that the verdict could not be appealed.

Konopka, who already had a criminal record, set fire to the door of an apartment on the 11th floor of a block of flats where 15 people were attending a birthday party.

The prosecutor said the man could not cope with the fact that his wife had left him to live with her son and his girlfriend in the flat.

The wife and son died in the fire, according to the Blesk tabloid.

Ten people, including two firefighters and a police officer, were injured.

Four of the people in the flat survived by climbing over to the balcony next-door.