Court annuls verdict for former head of Czech soccer association

Prague, Oct 9 (CTK) - The High Court in Prague has annulled the verdict for former head of the Czech Football (CMFS) Frantisek Chvalovsky to ten years in prison for loan frauds worth hundreds of million crowns in relation to Komercni banka (KB bank), Internet daily Insider said Tuesday.

The Prague Municipal Court will have to deal again with the case, Insider said.

"As the ruling was meted out in a closed session, I cannot disclose any other information," court spokesman Jan Fort has told the daily.

The judiciary's information system justice.cz has confirmed the fact that the original ruling was annulled.

In June, the Municipal Court in Prague sentenced Chvalovsky to ten years in prison for the frauds from the late 1990s.

The court also meted out prison sentences to four co-defendants.

The court ruled that on account of false information, the defendants swindled almost 1.5 billion crowns out of the bank.

All five men still plead innocent.

According to the indictment, they submitted applications for financing their deals on behalf of various companies with the KB in 1998-1999.

The judge said they had pretended that the money would be used for the purchase and export of some manufactured goods, meat and hops.

In one case, the money was to be spent on some construction works.

However, they eventually spent the money in quite a different way, primarily on the repayment of their previous debts, the judge said.