Czech man fighting extradition from Malta recounts harrowing kidnapping in Gozo

A man fighting extradition to the Czech Republic for evading VAT gave a judge a detailed account of how he was kidnapped twice – once in Gozo – and made to sign documents relating to a company he was no longer a director of.

Marek Drga is wanted in the Czech Republic to face tax evasion charges over €350,000 in unpaid VAT. He was traced in Gozo after attempting to open a bank account, after residing there for at least three years.

Arrested in November and remanded in custody after bail was refused, in December a Maltese court green-lit the extradition.

Drga then filed an appeal arguing that the accusations made by Czech authorities were not in good faith and due to the lapse of time since the alleged offences made in 2011.

Testifying on Thursday, Drga said he left the Czech Republic in October 2012, having owned the company Future Construction from 2009 to 2010. He was later accused of using the company to evade VAT on behalf of construction magnate Miroslav Zaremba, who had previously sub contracted Drga’s company.

Drga said he sold the company to Thomas Frania, who allowed him to stay on as an employee for six months, and then the company was sold again in February 2011 to Renata Sedláčková.

But the European Arrest Warrant states that he engaged in a fraudulent VAT carousel in March and May 2011, allegedly for having acquired electrical equipment from Slovakia VAT-free, and then claiming VAT in the Czech Republic.

Drga said that before selling his company, Miroslav Zaremba had told him he still needed his company to sign a contract for new material and act as an intermediary in a transaction for nickel cathodes. He smelt a rat and declined to make the deal.

In 2012, after his company was sold off to new owner Renata Sedláčková, he received calls from unidentified persons asking about the owner of Future Construction. In a second call, they said they needed to change documents relating to the change of ownership from Frania, who was now in Australia, to Sedláčková.

Drga said he refused to sign a document when asked, sensing something was wrong. “They contacted me again and tried to force me to sign documents on a deal between Future Construction and their company, which they didn’t identify.” He contacted Zaremba who told him he had nothing to do with it.

He panicked when he saw a TV news bulletin saying Miroslav Zaremba was involved in a criminal fraud investigation. “I knew I was trapped, because the police and the government were involved in this big case.”

He said he left the Czech Republic a couple of months later, after being threatened for not signing the documents. “I said I would report [the man threatening him] to the police and the guy laughed and said ‘who do you think I am?’ He took out his badge from the jacket showing he was a police officer. I was scared.”

Drga broke down in tears when he said that just a day before leaving the country, an attempt was made to kidnap him. “I was going home late evening around 11. I was walking to my house and from behind me two people caught my hand and tried to shove me into a car. They were forcing me into the car and the third person tried to push my head into the car. I was shouting and have some self-defence knowledge and tried to protect myself.”

He ran to his mother’s flat 200 metres away and hid there. The next morning he took his passport and travelled to his mother, who was staying in Hanover. She drove him to a friend’s house in Italy. A family friend in Gozo offered to put him up there, where he arrived in October 2012 and started to work as a gym instructor.

Kidnapped in Gozo

Then in first week of January 2013 he was kidnapped in Gozo.

“I was going to the bus terminus in Victoria... it was dark. I spotted a group of people a few metres away. One called my name. I was shocked and knew they found me. I stood there shaking. They told me not to try to escape as I would not succeed.”

Drga claimed they told him to go with them in their car where they drove him to the Sanap cliffs. “They told me to go out of the car and took my mobile and searched my things. As I was standing there, another car came with the lights on. They were shouting that I was going to die and that it was my last day. I remember seeing a memorial to a person who died there and they told me I would be the next one. One of them told me ‘now you will sign the documents that we brought for you.’”

Drga claimed he signed some 50 pages of documents, and then they argued over what to do with him. “One said ‘give him a chance, we have what we want.’ The people in the other car consulted with them. They took me back to the car and said I’m lucky... that if I ever come to the Czech Republic they would kill me. They drove me back to my flat, knew my address and everything about me. They even knew my neighbour was a police officer – which I didn’t even know at the time. They told me they would be watching me.”

Defence lawyer Robert Montalto asked why he hadn’t filed a police report in Malta. He was too frightened, he said. “I was in Gozo for only one month and a half and they found me. I didn’t tell anyone, not even my family.”

He said he feared that he would be attacked in the Czech Republic, even if under police protection. “I don’t have faith in the justice system there.”

Montalto argued amongst other things that the Czech prosecution is in bad faith. “We tend to believe that the VAT carousel scam happened, but not that Drga was involved. No objective evidence attaches him to the crimes, but only mere allegations. It was only when this group of persons noticed that he could also sign instead of Frania, who was not available, that they became interested in him.”

Montalto said it was evident that the Czech authorities want Drga to testify against Miroslav Zaremba to have at least one objective witness, but his safety was in peril. Montalto asked the court to apply its residual special powers, which are only vested in the court of appeal, and repeal the first court’s decision to order his return to Czech republic.

Lawyer George Camilleri from the Office of the Attorney General pointed out that very little proof was shown supporting the man’s testimony. “Very serious allegations were made. The prosecution is not in a position to say whether Czech authorities are trustworthy, but it does say the Maltese are.”

Camilleri said he found it “unnerving to hear him say that he was not comfortable seeking Maltese police protection”, and questioned Drgo’s motives. “It seems to me that creating a story could shield Mr. Drga from due process and justice.”

The court will pass judgment on Friday 12 January.