The Municipal Court in Prague opened the main hearing on 19 October 2026 with the opera singer Gabriela Beňačková, whom the prosecution charges with attempted fraud involving a will.
The Municipal Court in Prague opened the main hearing on 19 October 2026 with the former opera singer Gabriela Beňačková and another female defendant. The prosecution charges them with attempted fraud through which, according to prosecutor Jana Murínová, they would have acquired assets worth roughly CZK 70 million. Beňačková is 79 years old. The prosecutor proposes a prison sentence of five years for her and five and a half years for the co-defendant, in addition to fines.
According to the indictment, in 2018 the two women gained the trust of an elderly woman and induced her to sign a will leaving them her assets, including a property on Maltézské náměstí in Prague. When it appeared that the will might be declared invalid in probate proceedings, the co-defendant was, according to the prosecutor, to have attempted to obtain the house during the elderly woman's lifetime on the basis of a purchase contract, without intending to pay for it. The indictment also mentions an attempt to obtain antiques worth roughly three million korunas.
According to Murínová, the defendants claim that the elderly woman decided freely. After leaving the courtroom, Beňačková told journalists: "I feel innocent." She made no further comment on the indictment. Fraud carries a sentence of up to ten years in prison. The prosecutor described the proposed sentences as symbolic and justified them by the fact that the attempt failed and that the proceedings have lasted a long time. The court ruled as early as 2019 that the will was invalid. According to the prosecutor, the assets were acquired by the rightful heirs and the probate proceedings ended a few weeks ago. The injured parties seek compensation for damage in the tens of millions of korunas.
Beňačková was born in 1947 in Bratislava. She is a holder of the Thalia Award and since 2017 a member of the Hall of Fame of the National Theatre in Prague. In 1991 she sang the role of Káťa Kabanová in the first staging of this opera at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Chronology
- — The Municipal Court in Prague opened the trial of opera singer Gabriela Beňačková, whom the indictment accuses of attempted fraud involving a will worth about 70 million crowns; after the hearing Beňačková said she felt innocent. ČTK / České noviny iDNES.cz
Sources
- ČTK / České noviny — 19 October 2026
- iDNES.cz — 19 October 2026