Accompanied by prison guards, Alain Banongo appeared before the Olomouc High Court, to whom the Brno Regional Court imposed an exceptional sentence of 23 years in prison for beating another man with a tool and then setting him on fire in a car in Brno last year. February 8, 2023, Olomouc.
Olomouc – For the brutal murder of a young man in Brno, for the physical assault of two other people, robbery and theft, the High Court in Olomouc today increased the exceptional sentence originally imposed on Alain Banong of 23 years by three years to 26 years. He thus complied with the public prosecutor, who requested a stricter punishment. The former boxer tried to cover up his original criminal activity with murder, the victim caught him while he was dismantling a stolen vehicle at the garage. He hit the man several times in the head with a metal key, then put it in the trunk and set the car on fire.
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The court convicted the man of murder committed in a particularly brutal manner, he was originally convicted of murder committed in a particularly agonizing manner. According to the expert who testified in court today, the victim fell unconscious after some of the blows with the tool and was no longer aware of the subsequent situation. However, it did not affect the legal qualification. “It was a brutal way, it was nine blows to the head with extreme intensity,” said the judge. She also pointed out that Banongo committed a large number of crimes in a very short period of time and for completely petty reasons. According to her, the court considered the previous sentence too mild.
Prosecutor Jarmila Ošlejšková also demanded a sentence of at least 25 years. According to her, the regional court overestimated remorse and apology. “The defendant went on a rampage like a madman within one day from 04:00 to 17:00, when he managed to commit seven criminal acts. It is an extraordinary case, he needs to be isolated from society,” said the prosecutor. The 30-year-old Banongo, who at the request of the escort remained shackled on his feet and hands as a dangerous person at the hearing, was angry in court today and said that he was very sorry for everything. “I acted like a merciless fool,” he stated.
It all happened on July 31, 2021, according to the verdict, Banongo committed seven crimes in a single day. First, he stole a car in the village of Holubice in the Vyškov region, and later a motorbike. In the village, he also broke into the premises, where he seized a car. A little later, he physically assaulted a salesman at a car workshop in Brno and broke open the gate to the garage complex with a stolen vehicle around noon. There, he tried to dismantle the stolen car, but ran into a witness who was cleaning the car. He first hit the man nine times on the head with a metal key, seriously injuring him. He then loaded the unconscious man's body into the trunk of the car and set it on fire.
He continued his criminal activity, attacked the owner in a car dealership between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. and stole his jeep. At 17:00, the police arrested him after a chase. The man partially confessed, but testified that he was under the influence of drugs. He said he did not remember part of the act and learned about it from the file. According to the High Court, his motives were petty – he only attacked people aggressively because he ran out of fuel and needed to move. Today, the court described his behavior as extremely dangerous.
In addition to murder, the court also punished Banonga for robbery, unauthorized use of another's property, bodily harm, disorderly conduct, attempted theft and damage to another's property. The defendant heard the summary sentence, he has a previous conviction for theft and unauthorized use of someone else's property. He was on probation at the time of committing the crime.
