Czech police want to prosecute Rath on other points

Prague, July 18 (CTK) - The Czech police Wednesday officially asked the Chamber of Deputies to enable new prosecution of MP David Rath (former Social Democrat, CSSD) over continuing crime of bribe taking, Chamber of Deputies chairwoman Miroslava Nemcova told CTK.

In May the police accused Rath, then Central Bohemia regional governor, of corruption linked to the planned reconstruction of the Bustehrad chateau. The police caught Rath red-handed with seven million crowns, a suspected bribe. He has been in custody for two months now.

Shortly after his detention he resigned as regional governor and left the senior opposition CSSD. He has retained his mandate of a deputy.

The police's new request mentions another three suspected cases of Rath's bribe taking. They concern the purchase of equipment for the hospital in Kolin, for the old people's home in the Kladno hospital and of a medical technology for a pavilion in the Mlada Boleslav hospital, Nemcova said.

Petr Jirat, state attorney in central Bohemia, said Rath's cases involve public orders placed by the Central Bohemia region.

"It has been qualified as continuing crime of bribe taking, committed in four cases," Jirat told CTK.

Rath's defence lawyer Adam Cerny said the police's new request may ensue from the fact that the Bustehrad case is evidently based on weak evidence. It has turned out that the chateau's reconstruction was not overpriced, Cerny said.

"All people involved have been questioned. They said it was Mr Rath who saw to that the price for the chateau reconstruction be the lowest possible," Cerny told CTK.

The police request will be discussed by the lower house's mandate and immunity committee.

The Chamber of Deputies will decide on whether to release Rath for prosecution over the new suspicions at its session in September.

The Chamber of Deputies mandate and immunity committee will deal with the police request now.

Its chairman Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) said the committee would meet at 15:00 on Monday, September 3. If it completed the debate on the same or next day, the vote on Rath's release for another criminal prosecution could be included in the agenda of the lower house's session.

The September session has not been convoked yet but it could start on September 4, according to the lower house's schedule.

Another seven people have been prosecuted along with Rath over suspected manipulation of Central Bohemia's public orders since May, and another person, a businessman, was accused this Monday.