Czechia’s longest-serving prisoner denied parole after nearly 40 years

Czechia’s longest-serving prisoner will remain behind bars after a court in Most rejected his application for conditional release Thursday.

Zdeněk Navrátil, serving a life sentence for two murders, has spent almost 40 years in prison. The court found that he had not demonstrated sufficient rehabilitation and declined to accept a guarantee offered by an organization supporting his release.

Defense lawyer Michal Pokorný challenged the decision, meaning a regional court will review the case. Navrátil attended the hearing by video link from prison.

Navrátil, formerly known as Zdeněk Vocásek, has repeatedly sought release. Most District Court approved his application in September 2025, but the regional court overturned that decision in December.

Judge Benno Eichler said circumstances had since changed, including the prison’s assessment and the withdrawal of support from Oikia, an organization that had previously offered a guarantee for Navrátil.

Prison director Vladimír Beneš told the court that Navrátil had agreed to participate in an anger-management program but failed to follow its rules and was removed through his own conduct.

The prison psychologist reported no progress in his continuing personality disorder. Eichler said the issue was not simply acquiring new experience through prison programs, but learning to comply with requirements he disagreed with.

The judge also questioned the strength of the new guarantee offered by Společnost pro právní stát, noting that its representatives had met Navrátil only twice.

The court concluded that he lacked sufficient self-reflection and that concerns remained about his conduct outside prison.

The prosecutor supported keeping Navrátil in custody, saying only the time-served requirement for release had been met.

The hearing also addressed conflicting expert assessments from 2022 and 2025. The more recent report considered reintegration possible, while the earlier assessment had reached the opposite conclusion.

The court rejected the prosecutor’s request for another expert report as unnecessary.

Pokorný argued that his client had fulfilled all the conditions for release and that almost four decades in prison had substantially changed him.

He attributed Navrátil’s difficulties with the prison program to frustration at repeatedly completing similar activities. The lawyer said he would continue working with him, as would the organization offering support.

Navrátil told the court he understood that life outside would be difficult but said he would not face it alone. Family members had recently contacted him, he added.

Convicted of two brutal murders, Navrátil was among the last people sentenced to death in Czechoslovakia. He was not executed following the political changes of November 1989 and the subsequent abolition of capital punishment.

In August 1990, a court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment.