State prosecutor: Military police erred in Czech Television raid

Prague, March 15 (CTK) - The Czech military police erred during the raid on Czech Television (CT) on Friday as they seized even the material that was not related to the prosecution on suspicion of endangering classified information, the Prague State Attorney's Office head Jana Hercegova told CTK Tuesday.

The police must therefore return part of seized material, she added.

Hercegova said she considered the step of her subordinate, state attorney Vladimir Muzik, who proposed that the order for the search be issued, lawful and substantiated.

On March 11, about ten military police officers, masked and with automatic rifles, stormed the public CT's news building in search of the military intelligence's (VZ) file that is linked to the controversial departure of Miroslav Krejcik as VZ head a few of years ago and that reporter Karel Rozanek presented in CT newscasts some time ago.

The police carried out the search based on a judicial order.

Muzik did not examine either how the military police carried out the search at CT or how the policemen were armed and how they behaved during the raid since he was not authorised to do so, Hercegova said.

This is why Muzik handed over the record on the raid to the military police's inspection.

He siad the military police did not proceed correctly since they had no IT expert with them during the raid in which they seized computers.

The police should assign experts to examine the material that might be related to the investigation immediately and then return it to CT, according to the state attorney.

The state attorney submitted the proposal for issuing the order for a search at CT in a justified way, Hercegova said.

Moreover, the proposal was confirmed by district court judge Krystof Novy, she added.

Under the penal order, a state attorney need not take part in such a search, Hercegova pointed out in reaction to the criticism that Muzik should have seen to the raid.

The High State Attorney's Office in Prague is yet to check Muzik's step. Its head Vlastimil Rampula wants to complete the check by Friday.

Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra (senior government Civic Democrats, ODS) has suspended military police chief commander Vladimir Lozek and another two senior officers pending the investigation into the case.