Court Hands Down 17.5-year Prison Sentence in Student Abduction Case (2)

Bratislava, 11 September (TASR) - Ivo P. [name abbreviated due to legal reasons] was found guilty of the kidnapping and intoxication of a student identified as Sona by Bratislava I City Court Friday and was sentenced to a combined prison term of 17.5 years under maximum security for a particularly serious crime of sexual violence and for restricting personal freedom. In a verdict that is not yet final, the court also imposed a protective supervision order for a period of two years, forfeiture of property (a car), as well as damages exceeding €100,000 to be paid to the student, with the remainder of the claim for damages to be sought via civil proceedings. While prosecutor Kristina Baluchova and the victim's legal counsel Ondrej Urban reserved the right to respond within the deadline, the defendant has already appealed against all parts of the verdict. His lawyer Igor Schweighofer explained that Ivo P. wasn't satisfied with the verdict because, in his view, its reasoning was unconvincing. According to senate chair Branislav Harabin, "the court simply didn't believe the defendant's story that something like this suddenly happened out of nowhere and that he woke up at home with an unknown woman. So, it's clear that he had a drug on him that he administered. This was also undisputed, as the presence of the chemical substances was established by expert opinions". Urban agrees with the court's decision to reclassify a particularly serious crime of rape as a particularly serious crime of sexual violence. "I agree with all of this, and as for the amount of compensation for non-pecuniary damage, I'd like to thank the court for having the courage to award, in essence, at least one-third of the non-pecuniary damages that we sought," added Urban. Police received a missing person's report for the student in September 2023. Sona was found unconscious and intoxicated near a hospital in Bratislava's borough of Petrzalka. Ivo P. was charged with rape and restricting personal freedom. A court remanded the accused in custody. At the end of April 2024, the prosecution against Ivo P. was halted due to his mental illness, and he was placed in a medical facility. In 2025, the Constitutional Court found that Sona's rights had been violated, upholding the victim's appeal regarding the termination of the criminal prosecution of the perpetrator due to his mental condition. The Prosecutor-General's Office ordered that the case should be reopened and acted upon again. The trial began in October 2025. The defendant denied raping the victim. NOTE: This story has been extended to include paragraphs 3 to 5. jrg/df