The accusation against the official for the repair of Charles Bridge has been canceled

Prague - The State Prosecutor's Office for Prague 1 has dropped the charges against the head of Prague's heritage office, Jan Kněžínka. CTK was informed by police spokesperson Tomáš Hulan. Kněžínek was accused of committing the crime of obstructing a public official's task through negligence in relation to the repair of Charles Bridge. However, according to Hulan, detectives are still investigating the reconstruction of the bridge, and no one else has been charged so far.
    Kněžínek was charged back in February and filed an appeal against the decision. The charges were dropped as of March 31, according to Hulan. The reason for the dismissal was, according to the spokesperson, formal deficiencies and lack of reviewability.
    "It is an absolute relief, I went through something terrible during the past month. I'm moved, what more can I say,” Kněžínek responded.
    An anonymous criminal complaint was filed by opponents of the method of repairing Charles Bridge from the Association for the Protection and Development of Cultural Heritage. They were bothered that a construction-historical survey had allegedly not been carried out before the repairs started and that archaeologists were not informed. They considered the capital city as the owner of the bridge, the city hall as the authority for heritage care, and the National Heritage Institute as guilty.
    In connection with the bridge reconstruction, the Pilsen region decided last week to impose a fine of 3.25 million crowns on the Prague city hall for degrading the heritage value of Charles Bridge during its reconstruction. The city hall intends to appeal against the fine.