Finance minister complains about allegations

Prague, July 6 (CTK) - Czech Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek (TOP 09) has lodged a complaint with the General Inspection of Law-Enforcement Bodies (GIPS) over the claim that he threatened a detective over the purchase of CASA planes, Kalousek said in a press release Friday.

Kalousek called the investigator of the case of former defence minister Vlasta Parkanova (TOP 09) who is to be prosecuted over the purchase of CASA planes for the military.

Media reported that Kalousek had even threatened the detective, telling him that he would be fired from the police. Kalousek admitted he had called the investigator but he denied having threatened him.

The opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) and some civic groups demanded Kalousek's dismissal over, what they say, Kalousek's unacceptable influencing the police work in the Parkanova case.

Police asked the Chamber of Deputies to release its deputy chairwoman Parkanova for prosecution over the purchase of CASA planes for the military that was allegedly overpriced by 658 million crowns. The police say Parkanova did not have an expert opinion on the planes' price worked out.

Kalousek is defending Parkanova saying she was not obliged to order na expert opinion on the CASAs.

Kalousek said the claims that he had threatened the detective was false and a slander.

"Last week, I was accused and scandalised with the false claim that I threatened over the phone an investigator of the CASA case," Kalousek said.

"After taking into account all circumstances, I have come to the conclusion that is not enough just to dismiss the slander verbally," Kalousek said.

He said this was why he had lodged the complaint with the GIPS in order to find out how the claim had arisen and how it had leaked to the public.

"I firmly believe that there is an authentic, unmanipulated recording of the interview in question," Kalousek said.

Kalousek said he believed the leak of the information on his alleged coercion had the sole objective of deflecting attention from the expert report of the Finance Ministry drafted for the Chamber of Deputies mandate and immunity committee.

In its edition that will appear on Monday, weekly Respekt writes that supervising state attorney Jan Koran has confirmed that before Kalousek's call, the investigation was accompanied with "other pressures."

"I know something about this, but I do not want to exert any counter-pressure with my statement," the weekly quotes Koran as saying.

Respekt writes that three weeks ago a meeting was held that was attended by one of the superiors of Jiri Mazanek, the detective investigating the CASA case, and a man allegedly considered Kalousek's representative.

It writes that this former detective and a member of the anti-corruption unit, tried to convince the investigator that Parkanova did not have to have the expert report worked out.

Respekt writes that the investigators did not drop their view.

($1=20.321 crowns)