MP Bárta appeals suspended sentence he received for bribery

Prague, June 21 (CTK) - Czech deputy and former transport minister Vit Barta (opposition Public Affairs, VV) has appealed the suspended sentence a court imposed on him for bribing fellow VV deputies into loyalty, he has announced on his website.

Barta also said he has lodged a criminal complaint against Kristyna Koci, former head of the VV deputies' group, whom he suspects of fraud and perjury.

Barta is an informal leader of the VV, which was a part of the Czech government until early May.

"In the appeal, I and my defence counsel have challenged the court's conclusions concerning the loan [I extended out to other VV MPs]," Barta writes on the Internet.

He writes that the 19-page appeal also criticises the court for dealing insufficiently with the question of impunity of a person provoked to commit a crime. He also writes that the court convicted him of an act that is different from the crime he had been charged with as a suspect.

Barta was given a suspended 18-month sentence with 2.5-year probation for bribery. He pleads not guilty and asserts that the money he gave to Koci and Jaroslav Skarka, both former VV deputies, were loans. Judge Jan Sott believed Barta's assertion but decided that offering interest-free loans means bribery as well.

"As far as witness Kristyna Koci is concerned, the court considers her testimony extremely untrustworthy," Sott said within the verdict on Barta. He indicated that Koci, together with Skarka, might have planned to discredit Barta. He said Koci's answers to some of the court's questions were unconvincing and evasive.

Barta writes on his website that he has lodged a complaint against Koci on suspicion of fraud and perjury.

"I suppose that the law enforcement bodies will properly deal with this criminal complaint," Barta said.

The state attorney, too, has appealed the court verdict on Barta.

Along with the eruption of Barta's bribery scandal in spring 2011, a wiretapping transcript emerged in which Koci spoke about her plan to split the VV and oust Barta's wing from the government in cooperation with some politicians from the senior ruling Civic Democratic Party (ODS). Koci reacted saying she was deliberately telling lies because she knew she was secretly recorded.