Court Sentences Klinka to Eight Years in Jail for Robbery in Valko's House

Pezinok, January 31 (TASR) – A three-member senate of the district court in Pezinok (Bratislava region) approved a new plea bargain agreed between Prosecutor General’s Office prosecutor Jozef Kandera and Jaroslav Klinka, charged with robbery in the case of the murder of prominent lawyer Ernest Valko in November 2010.

Based on the approved plea bargain, Klinka will serve an eight-year sentence under medium security conditions. The verdict is final and valid and cannot be contested.

“The court views the eight-year sentence as sufficient. Now it will be interesting to see how another court decides on the main culprit,” stated the senate head. He expressed his conviction that the aggrieved person, Valko’s daughter Jana, will learn at the main trial how her father was murdered.

“I am satisfied. The Pezinok court considered very carefully both the legal qualifications and the procedural conditions under which the taking of evidence took place and I think its ruling is lawful. Now it’s time for me to start working on the indictment against Jozef R. It will be filed at Bratislava I District Court,” Kandera told TASR while leaving the court room.
Klinka was now sentenced only for robbery, claiming that Valko was shot dead by a man identified only as Jozef R., who denies the accusation, however.

In 2007 Klinka was sentenced for a criminal offence of robbery. The district court in Ziar nad Hronom (Banska Bystrica) sentenced him to a prison sentence of six years and eight months.

Ernest Valko was shot dead in his villa at Limbach (Bratislava region) on November 8, 2010. He was killed by a single gunshot to the heart and lungs fired from several metres away. The police completed their investigation into the murder of lawyer Valko with a motion to file charges against 43-year-old Jozef R. and 45-year-old Klinka, with the motive stated as robbery.