Hearing on Conditional Release of Mikulas Cernak Adjourned until May

Piestany, April 2 (TASR) - The hearing on the conditional release of mob boss Mikulas Cernak at Trnava District Court in Piestany on Wednesday has been adjourned until May 20 and 22. The public session in this matter took place nearly a year after the last one. On Wednesday, psychiatric expert Ivan Doci stated that he did not find any serious mental illness, such as psychosis, in Mikulas Cernak's case. Monika Brodanska, a prosecutor from the Trnava Prosecutor's Office, suggested adding an updated evaluation of the convict and called for a new psychiatric assessment. According to her, the original expert only examined the presence of psychosis. She also questioned the conclusions of the report, and noted that the psychological evaluation lacked necessary details. "I believe that based on today's presented evidence, it's clear enough that Mikulas Cernak meets the conditions for conditional release. It's very striking that the prosecution is requesting evaluations of assessments that experts have already commented on and which, in their procedural nature, have no flaws," emphasised Cernak's attorney Diana Messingerova. Cernak stated at the public hearing that he has been under close supervision in prison for many years and has also completed several resocialisation courses. The proposal for Cernak's conditional release from prison was submitted by the civil association Restart - new life. The former boss of Banska Bystrica criminal gang was given a life sentence, although convicts with this type of punishment are free to apply for parole after serving 25 years in jail. lin