Jiří Linhart

He was Jiří Linhart, a detective from the then Department for Combating Organized Crime (OBOZ). As in many other cases, an unfortunate coincidence played a major role in his case, which had fatal consequences for all involved. On that fateful day, OBOZ criminals were conducting a raid on a racketeering gang that had kidnapped, imprisoned and extorted businessmen. Five to six places where the perpetrators might be located were mapped out, and Jiří Linhart and three colleagues were put in charge of searching an apartment in Táboritská Street in Prague, where blood traces of one of the kidnapped businessmen were supposed to be found. Here the first of a series of unfortunate coincidences occurred when the investigator was delayed in obtaining a search warrant and all four officers had to wait to enter the apartment. All four took up positions on the penultimate floor, where one of the alleged perpetrators owned an apartment. After waiting for a few moments, the officers heard the outside doorbell of the apartment ring. As it turned out, this was the second turning point of the event. Two of the officers decided to take the elevator down and find out who was ringing the bell for the perpetrators. Moments later, the elevator came back up. However, it did not stop on the floor where the perpetrator lived, but went up one floor - Jiří Linhart and his colleagues had agreed to go up to the top floor on the way back, so that if the perpetrator suddenly attacked the apartment, they would not get caught in the crossfire. Major Linhart then went upstairs to find out who had rung the bell for the owner of Uhlíř's flat downstairs. Behind him, only j