Draft:Escape from Leopoldov prison

The organized escape from prison in Leopoldov, a maximum security prison and one of the most guarded institutions in Slovakia took place on 23 November 1991. It was orchestrated by a group of prisoners that were serving their sentences in Leopoldov that turned into a massacre of 5 prison guards.

Leopold prison uprising

This event was preceeded by two important decisions. Václav Havel declared amnesty on 1 January 1990, also known as great amnesty, pardoning many political prisoners which directly led to revolts and uprisings of prisoners that were not granted an amnesty due to the nature of the crime they committed and consequently their prison sentences. The second decision was made by the Leopoldov prisoners excluded from Havel's amnesty programme. On the 15 March 1990 they went on a hunger strike, which climaxed on 18 March 1990 with a Leopoldov prison uprising, the largest prison uprising in Czechoslovak history, by setting on fire the rooftop of Leopoldov prison and taking over the isntitution.

A selected group of prisoners that participated in the uprising was also primarily involved in the organization of an escape a year and a haf later, including Ondrej Havran, Dalibor Bajger, Vladimír Duda, Miloš Uriga, Bartolomej Botoš, Vladislav Fedák and Tibor Polgári regarded as the mastermind behind this plot.

Carrying out the plan

Tibor Polgári went ahead with the plan and was the first one to attack a prison guard František Sloboda. With the help of Miloš Juriga, he stabbed him with a knife multiple times, eventually killing him at the scene. Then they proceeded to the Office, where they brutally beat up another four guards. With the guard's keys they also changed into police uniforms, which allowed them entrance to an operation centre providing for them unlimited Access to machine rifles and five guns. After seizing the guns, the duo Tibor and Miloš killed another four guards and beat up two more supervisors. One of them was taken hostage and forced to free two sentenced prisoners. During this alteration one of the prisoners was shot as he was standing up to Polgári and the group but eventually survived this wound.

The organized group lead by Polgári successfuly fled the prison and concurrently the crime scene as well. Another victim of theirs was a man, owner of a car they stole in order to drive to Poland according to their premeditated plan. Crashing the car near Trnava, they stole another car which ran out of gas very quickly. After spending few hours in Trnava they decided to walk to Madunice and take a train to another destination but unexpectedly arriving back in Leopoldov. At this point, Leopoldov and surroundings were closely monitored and they were detected by the police in Žlkovce.

Aftermath

The state filed a lawsuit against every member participating in the escape, the three main members were accused of an escape from prison and multiple murders and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The remaining four criminals were sentenced to considerable time behind bars. A member of the police force assigned in the prison was accused of neglect of duty and was let out on parole.

Victims: František Sloboda, Milan Černý, Igor Jošt, Milan Galbavý, Marián Zenner. Maroš Képeši, Vladimír Korec, and Peter Machata survived their injuries.