Zahlazení odsouzení

Under Czech law

Zahlazení odsouzení is governed by § 105–§ 106 of the Criminal Code (Act No. 40/2009 Sb.). After serving the sentence, statutory waiting periods of continuous orderly life apply — for example fifteen years after an exceptional sentence, ten years for prison terms exceeding five years, five years for terms over one year, and three years for shorter terms. On application, the court then expunges the conviction; some convictions (typically suspended sentences after successful probation) are treated as expunged by operation of law.

The consequence sits in § 106: once expunged, the person must be regarded as having no conviction. The entry disappears from the standard extract from the criminal register (výpis z rejstříku trestů) that employers and authorities usually require, though it remains visible in the full record (opis) available to courts and police.

A practical example

A man convicted of a business-related offence finished a two-year sentence in 2019. Since then he has lived and worked without incident. In 2025 a licensing authority requires a clean record. His lawyer files an application for expungement with the district court; after the order, his extract comes back clean and the licence can proceed.

When you need a lawyer

The waiting periods, the difference between the extract and the full record, and multiple overlapping convictions make this easy to get wrong. A lawyer prepares the application with evidence of orderly life and handles cases where several sentences must be expunged together.