Zeman did not arrive at the opening of his dispute at the District Court for Prague 3 on Thursday, he sent castle attorney Marek Nespala to represent him. He filed a lawsuit against Stehlíková for personality protection for his five statements from October last year, when he was hospitalized in an intensive care clinic in a serious condition. The castle did not reveal the reason for staying in the hospital at the time.

The doctor stated on his blog and in the media, among other things, that the president’s abstinence in the hospital led to the onset of delirium tremens. He also mentions metabolic disorders due to alcoholic liver cirrhosis, permanent brain damage or sudden dementia.

Nespala included an opinion on the state of Zeman’s health, which, however, dates from March this year. Judge Dáša Vítková said that such an opinion does not apply to the subject of the trial – namely, about Zeman’s state last fall. Therefore, he would be tasked with the preparation of a new appraisal.

“The court will consider which institution specializing in psychiatry to approach. It is not an institution from Prague. Faculty hospitals in Brno, Olomouc or Ostrava are being considered,” Vítková said. Stehlíková, who has the burden of proof as a defendant in the dispute, requested that he deposit about 50,000 crowns of bail for judgment. They must also submit a catalog of questions for experts to court within six weeks.

“His intervention was so drastic that an apology alone is not enough,” Nespala said in court of Stehlíková’s remarks on Thursday. He called his statements a “divine diagnosis” and a “high school of disinformation”.

“The President has never hidden his fondness for alcohol and tobacco. This is purely a psychiatric diagnosis. And alcohol addiction is the leading cause of cirrhosis of the liver, no doubt about it. If you want to treat cirrhosis, you have to treat the underlying disease. That’s what a psychiatrist should do. an addict, that means an expert in addictive diseases,” Stehlíková told reporters before the meeting.

He also criticized the fact that the medical board does not meet regularly to assess Zeman’s health condition. “We want to thoroughly know the condition of the President. The President is not well, all ordinary people can see at a glance. After all, it is impossible to manage a head of state like this,” he said. . “The court will open people’s eyes that it’s okay. My point is that we don’t repeat the same mistakes. I don’t care how I end up,” he added.

His lawyer Artur Ostr reminded the court that the statement was made during a parliamentary election, when, he said, the public expected the president to do his job. “We all remember very well that the president rarely appeared in public at the time, and when he did, his health was legitimately questioned,” he said.

Ostrý states that Stehlíková has been professionally involved in alcoholism throughout his life, and therefore based on his practice. According to Ostr, some of his words were confirmed by the subsequent development of events. He mentioned that the president remained in a wheelchair and that he saw spiders fall from their feet, according to media reports. He also said that during a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Zeman called Orbán “Andreji” and spoke to him in Russian.

Nespala objected to this argument. “For God’s sake, where did it come from? If the diagnosis comes out of this rotten media scum, then we are here,” he told the judge. He also denied that Zeman was an alcoholic. “No one’s forbidding him to drink alcohol. He’s got indigestion, he’s decided on his own, it’s been a year now and he’s fine with that. If he’s a delirious alcoholic, he’ll destroy a hospital room and have to be tied up,” he said.

The president was hospitalized twice last fall. Doctors confirmed the need for treatment due to complications associated with the president’s chronic illness. A member of the president’s medical council, surgeon Pavel Pafko, later indicated it was cirrhosis of the liver. Zeman has repeatedly spoken about suffering from anorexia. After being released to home care, she lives in a castle in Lány, where a private nursing company cares for her 24/7.

The trial will resume on February 28, after the presidential election. Zeman’s mandate expires on March 8. The president previously issued an apology and 250,000 crowns to former Brno-sted board member Svatopluk Bartík, who wrote about him on social networks before the last presidential election that he had cancer, refused treatment and had a few months left to live.

VIDEO: It is a crime to remain silent about Zeman. If it weren’t for my alarm, it would be too late, says Stehlíková