Police charge four people due to the cracking of the Prague Marina building

Prague - In connection with the shift of the load-bearing structure of the building Prague Marina in Prague's Holešovice, the police charged four people with negligent endangerment. CTK was told today by spokesman for Prague police Tomáš Hulan.
     The building with 150 luxury apartments was constructed by Metrostav, with Lighthouse Group as the developer. Metrostav does not want to comment on the case.     
The luxury apartment building has had structural problems since last April. About a quarter of the columns supporting the building have deformed. Several dozen residents had to be evacuated twice.
     "At the end of March, four people aged 37, 45, 61, and 61 were charged," Hulan stated. According to him, expert analyses in the field of statics proved that the main cause of the building's cracking was the inappropriate design and use of an unsuitable construction element.
     "Criminal proceedings have been initiated, so we will not be commenting on this at the moment," said František Polák, spokesman for Metrostav. He also refused to disclose whether the charged individuals were employees of Metrostav.
     According to information from CTK, in similar cases, a structural engineer, designer, technical supervisor, and site manager are typically charged. This implies that one of the charged individuals could be an employee of Metrostav.
     Negligent endangerment, according to the penal code, is committed by anyone who, through their actions, puts people in danger of death or serious bodily harm or threatens foreign property with large-scale damage. Given that the damage caused exceeded ten million crowns in the case of the Holešovice building, the accused face up to eight years in prison. The investigation is ongoing, and it is possible that the number of accused individuals is not final.