Euro.cz: Former defence minister suspects Tatra reps of corruption

Prague, June 10 (CTK) - Former Czech defence minister Martin Bartak, suspected of having asked for a bribe in connection with the purchase of Tatra lorries for the military, filed a complaint against Tatra representatives on suspicion of corruption this week, his lawyer told the Euro.cz server.

The lawyer, Josef Monsport, said the complaint, lodged with the Supreme State Attorney's Office, also concerned protraction, an authorised interference in Bartak's privacy and biased investigation.

Bartak's case was stirred up by the information from William Cabaniss, former U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic and Tatra's supervisory board head. He said Bartak as then deputy to then defence minister Vlasta Parkanova had asked him in February 2008 for millions of dollars for securing that Tatra would have no more problems with the military order.

The daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) reported in the past about three suspects in the case. Apart from Bartak, these are Petr Ptacek, from the Praga company, and businessman Michal Smrz, mediating military orders. They all deny the accusations.

"I still firmly believe that we are living under the rule of law and not in a police state," Bartak told the Euro.cz server.

"There is not the slightest reason for persecuting a man on the basis of an a three-and-a-half-year old mendacious and absurd accusation," Bartak added.

Bartak occupied the post of deputy defence minister (2006-2009) and then he was defence minister and deputy PM in the interim government of Jan Fischer (May 2009-July 2010).

He became deputy to Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek in the current centre right government formed in mid-2010. He took an unpaid leave pending the investigation into the corruption suspicion and he left the post at his own request in March.