The district prosecutor's office in Bruntál has filed an indictment in the case of the illegal import of about 600 tonnes of waste from Germany to Czechia. The police charged four men and four companies in the case. The matter will be heard by the district court in Bruntál, which has not yet scheduled a trial. The head of the prosecutor's office, Zuzana Ševčíková, said that given the scale of the case the hearing will take place later than within a week.[1][2]
According to investigators, the accused acted as an organised group which, from June 2024 to January 2025, transported almost 600 tonnes of waste from Germany in about 30 lorries and deposited it at various places in the Bruntál, Brno and Zlín areas. The police assessed the waste as hazardous. It ended up in Jiříkov in the Bruntál area, in the Brno district of Horní Heršpice and in Morkovice-Slížany in the Kroměříž area. According to investigators, the waste originated from the German company Roth International, and the Czech recipient was the company Piroplastik. If convicted, the accused face up to five years in prison.[1][2]
The removal of 170 tonnes of waste from Těchanov, a part of Jiříkov, began in September 2025, and almost 300 tonnes were taken from Horní Heršpice in December 2025. The waste was removed at their own expense by the German authorities, who want to recover the costs from Roth International, which is in insolvency.[1] The mayor of Jiříkov, Barbora Šišková, said that she was the one who filed the criminal complaint in connection with the waste.[2]
German authorities also dealt with the case. In October 2026 the court in Weiden in Bavaria sentenced the former managing director of Roth International to four and a half years in prison and found a Czech lorry driver guilty, with a two-year suspended sentence. The judgment is not final.[1][2]
Sources
- Novinky.cz — 29 October 2026
- Seznam Zprávy — 29 October 2026