Hradec Králové - Bohumil Kulínský, the head of legendary children ensemble Bambini di Praga will finally get to hear his sentence next week.
Three years after the charge, Mr. Kulínský who has led the Czech choir Bambini di Praga for more than twenty years will learn his sentence at regional court of Hradec Králové for his alleged sexual abuse of choir members.
The prosecution proposes a charge of eight and half years of imprisonment, which is on a low end of charge range available for such a crime.
Tomáš Sokol, the defense attorney of the choirmaster and numerous Czech celebrities, refuse even this relatively low charge.
In his closing arguments he played down all acts that the prosecution holds for crimes.
"Touching a girl's breast over a T-shirt can by no means be classified as a sexual abuse," he said to the court, impeaching the important witnesses.
"They have been kicked out of Bambini di Praga so they wanted to hurt the defendant," Mr. Sokol argued.
Innocent or guilty?
The law court will decide about Mr. Kulínský's innocence or guilt next week.
He has already been found innocent by two regional courts within separate trials earlier but the Supreme court in Prague dismissed the sentences and ordered the case to be tried within one main trial.
At the main trial in Hradec Králové, three witnesses were heard. All three of them spoke on behalf of their former choirmaster who is suspected of touching the girls and having sexual intercourse with some of them.
Andrea Plecháčová, one of the witnesses supported the defendant by saying that she did not have any negative experience with him. "I am shy so I never went to the sauna with the others," she said.
Mr. Kulínský was watching the trial with a serious face that changed into a smile only when one of the witnesses said that there was a very strict atmosphere in the choir.
49 girls abused?
Besides, his work for the well-known and well-travelled choir that his mother started in 1973, he also conducted for the National Opera in Prague as well as numerous orchestras around the world.
The prosecution is accusing the choirmaster of abuse of 49 girls. It claims that he had a sexual intercourse with six of them and he was touching the rest of them.
Mr. Kulínský is accused of sexual abuse, jeopardizing of the moral upbringing of youth and persecution.
Mr. Kulínský refuses the prosecution even though he admitted that he has been in a relationship with several members of the girl choir.
He said at the law court that the prosecution is too vague because it does not describe where and when the acts allegedly happened. "The defendant cannot even put together his alibi because of it," says Mr. Sokol.
The state prosecutor says that he has enough proofs available. "It has been proved that he was abusing girls by the witnesses as well as experts' statements," the prosecution says.
Neither for, nor against
The key witnesses, however, do not speak for or against him unambiguously.
One of the former members of the choir told the court that she was in an intimate relationship with him since she was thirteen years old. She also said that girls that were in such a relationship had a better position within the choir.
But she also says that the quality of the voice and singing was more important. "There was a strict discipline in the choir. Mr. Kulínský was a great and strict choirmaster," she said.
The law court was surprised last week when a young woman took her accusation back that she lifted upon him three years ago. "I guess I just wanted to be more interesting," she explained why she accused him three years ago.
