The Czernin Agro company processes beef and pork, which it supplies to sellers. He himself has two shops in the Central Bohemia region and two in Hradec Králové. The owner is Senator Tomáš Czernin. He has served in the upper house of parliament since 2016, and in less than four years he also became the first deputy chairman of TOP 09.

In the second half of April last year, two inspectors from the State Agricultural and Food Inspection came to the company’s shop in Rožďalovice in Nymburk. They wanted to verify whether the agency had eliminated deficiencies found during the previous month’s inspection. They pay attention to the quality of certain foods or their labels.

However, they did not complete the second inspection. They were expelled from the company by Radek Š., who was the prosecutor at the company. He has the power to act on behalf of the company. He insulted the women and then took their documents to the front of the store. The details come from a verdict handed down privately at the Municipal Court in Prague in the second half of June and obtained by the editors.

Especially unacceptable behavior

“Executive behavior (Radka Š., notes ed.) was completely unacceptable when (…) he forcibly threw the inspector out of the office and into the area behind the service desk. When he grabbed him, he started swinging him from side to side until this inspector fell to the ground, and then he pushed the other inspector away so he couldn’t help the lying colleague to his feet,” reads a key part of the video indictment.

Czernin’s employees then carried his business and personal items from the office to the store, then took them out of the store. The manager of the venue then said to put up a “Closed for technical reasons” sign and left. This action is already a violation because it does not give state bodies the opportunity to carry out their duties.

“The fact that the appointed person arbitrarily removed the personal and work belongings of the examiners, thereby informing them that they had to immediately stop the inspection, points to the conclusion that he acted from a position of strength,” said the panel of judges Marko Bedřich. He emphasized that the company has an obligation to provide full cooperation in the inspection.

Senator Czernin told Aktuálně.cz that he saw nothing wrong with the behavior of his employees. According to him, the officers’ behavior was unacceptable. “When they came and said ‘we’ll examine you until we find a reason to put a band-aid on’, I was surprised no one noticed,” he said. However, nothing of the sort came out of the decision. The senator himself was not present at the hearing.

Inspector’s treatment in hospital

The prosecutor was not present at the start of the examination. He arrived at the place only after the inspectors were already seated in the company office. The store manager called him. According to Radek Š., they did nothing in the office because it had nothing to do with the subject of the inspection, and the manager had personal belongings in it. He said he wanted the women to sit in chairs at the front of the office.

However, the court said that the saleswoman locked her personal belongings in a locker. Moreover, according to the panel of judges Bedřich, the female inspectors entered the office legally. “In the room there is a computer that is used to process documentation related to store operations, orders, invoices, delivery notes, etc.,” the decision said.

Radek Š admitted to taking the notebook from the inspector. But he allegedly grabbed her hands, after which he dropped the board, grabbed both her wrists for a moment, then let go. No longer. “The statement was inconsistent with the arrival of the police patrol and ambulance service, or with the inspector’s subsequent treatment,” the court said, but noted that the ambulance instead took the woman to hospital for further examination.

Judge Bedřich pondered why the prosecutor did not show the footage of the incident he recorded on his cell phone. According to Radek Š., he should have proven his version. The court did not take into account the statements of the salesperson and manager defending Radek S. One did not see the incident because he was standing behind the counter, the other was not there at all.

“I Won’t Let You Like It”

The State Agricultural and Food Inspectorate fined the company 300,000 crowns for seven violations, including prosecutorial conduct, expiry dates for two products, or missing labels for another product. That’s why Czernin’s company filed a lawsuit, after which the Municipal Court in Prague began handling the case. The decisions cited are final.

“I don’t like it, I stand on my side. We will appeal against him. The fine is disproportionate. And they can’t fine them for coming to check for defects, and there aren’t,” said the senator. It is possible that cassation objections will be handled by the Supreme State Administrative Court, but their submission does not have a suspension effect on the legal force of the decision.

According to the regulations, the upper limit for fines resulting from inspections is 50 million kroons. Sanctions will not be imposed until a second inspection confirms deficiencies. The inspection has the authority to impose sanctions at the first inspection. As mentioned above, it happened last March. The examiner was unable to carry out the second because of the prosecutor’s actions.

“The State Agricultural and Food Inspection will not comment on this case beyond the scope of the facts stated in the ruling, especially considering the fact that the questions were addressed at the personal level of a particular female inspector,” inspector spokesman Pavel Kopřiva responded. the question of whether the incident did not end with the supervisors’ temporary inability to work.