Justice minister suggests regular competition for chief Prague prosecutor post

Brno, July 20 (CTK) - Czech Justice Minister Pavel Blazek (Civic Democrats, ODS) is considering launching a competition for the post of High State Attorney in Prague, his spokeswoman Petra Hruba has told CTK.

However, Blazek has not yet rejected Supreme State Attorney Pavel Zeman's proposal that Lenka Bradacova, a state attorney in Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia, be appointed for the post, Hruba said.

Blazek will make the final decision on it in the weeks to come, she added.

Zeman does not agree with a possible competition for High State Attorney in Prague.

He says it is at variance with the law on state attorney's offices under which the supreme state attorney proposes candidates for the post of high state attorney to the justice minister.It is then up to the minister whether he appoints them, or not.

Blazek and Zeman discussed the filling of the post in Brno on Thursday.

Zeman told CTK that he has nothing against competitions. On the contrary, he prefers them in situations where this is possible, he said.

However, this procedure cannot be applied in connection with filling the post of the Prague high state attorney also because he had already proposed a candidate (Bradacova).

"I think that the competition would be beyond the law on state attorney's offices and could be therefore challenged from the legal point of view," Zeman said.

He said the competition proceedings could also end with complaints by the unsuccessful participants.

Zeman said he and Blazek spoke about the competition as one of possible solutions and that he expects the discussion to continue.

Hruba said Blazek mentioned the variant of competition as a possibility to depoliticise the appointment of Prague High State Attorney. However, he is still assessing the proposal for appointment of Bradacova and he will decide on it within a couple of weeks, she added.

Hruba thereby changed her statements from this morning when she said Blazek had decided to launch a competition for the post.

Hruba said the posts of high state attorneys have been filled since 1993 on the basis of a proposal made by the supreme state attorney to the minister, who then appointed the candidate.

Zeman said he did not have the impression that Blazek has any objections to Bradacova and her work and that their discussion was matter-of-fact.

The meeting was participated in also by deputy supreme state attorneys Igor Striz and Stanislav Mecl, High State Attorney's Office head in Olomouc Ivo Istvan and Bradacova in her capacity as State Attorneys' Union president.

Bradacova would not comment on Blazek's proposal. "It is a matter for the minister and supreme state attorney to discuss," she told CTK.

The post of the Prague high state attorney has been vacant since former justice minister Jiri Pospisil (ODS) and later also court dismissed Vlastimil Rampula over serious mistakes he made in important cases.

Rampula and his deputy Libor Grygarek then resigned as state attorneys.

Bradacova is known mainly from the case of former Central Bohemia governor David Rath (formerly Social Democrats, CSSD), who has been accused of corruption.

Zeman proposed her appointment as Prague high state attorney to Pospisil some time ago and Pospisil was prepared to appoint her to the post.

He did not manage to do this before President Vaclav Klaus dismissed him on Prime Minister Petr Necas's (ODS) proposal in late June.

Necas justified the dismissal with Pospisil's alleged failure as manager.

It was speculated that the planned appointment of Bradacova was the reason for Pospisil's dismissal, but Necas dismissed this.

Petr Gazdik, chairman of the government TOP 09 deputy group, said Friday Blazek's decision to choose the Prague high state attorney in a competition confirms the suspicion that Pospisil was dismissed precisely to prevent the appointment of Bradacova.

Gazdik said Blazek's proposal to choose the Prague high state attorney in competition is not in line with law.

He said the TOP 09 leadership will react to the situation on Tuesday and that he thinks the issue should be dealt with within the government coalition.