MEPs call on EC to help release Czechs arrested in Zambia

Strasbourg, France, Nov 16 (CTK) - Czech members of the European Parliament Wednesday called on the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and some other European commissioners to intervene in the case of three Czechs detained in Zambia and accused of espionage in October.

Czech MEP Jan Brezina (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) asked EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to use all available means to help release the Czech citizens.

The three Czechs were arrested in Lusaka after taking photographs at the airport in October. The Czech embassy in Zimbabwe, which also represents Prague in Zambia, then said the three had only taken snaps of publicly accessible communications.

The Czech tourists were taken into custody and later released on bail, but the accusations against them have not been withdrawn and they face up to 25 years in prison if found guilty.

The accused Czechs say the espionage accusation is nonsense.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said previously that they were victims of a battle between secret services raging in Zambia. In such a situation the emergence of "an external enemy" is always welcome, Schwarzenberg added.

MEP Evzen Tosenovsky (Civic Democrats, ODS) said the aim was to make the Czech dispute with Zambia an international issue.

"We want EU bodies to take action according to their rules," he said.

Tosenovsky said he took a reserved stance on the possibility of economic pressure being exerted on Zambia.

"Diplomatic negotiations will definitely come first...We want Zambia to realise that the accused persons are citizens of a EU member state and that their detention concerns the European Union," Tosenovsky said.

Brezina is not against possible economic pressure, however. "Zambia is one of the major receivers of EU's development aid and this is a strong tool that the EU may use when exerting diplomatic pressure," he said.

"I have called on Ashton not to hesitate to threaten to halt the EU's developmental aid to Zambia," Brezina said.

He noted that the EU has an opportunity to prove its usefulness for particular citizens.