More than 3,500 inmates leave prisons

Prague, Jan 3 (CTK) - Czech prisons have already released over 3500 inmates as of yesterday within the amnesty that the outgoing President Vaclav Klaus declared on New Year and that took effect on January 2.

Justice Minister Pavel Blazek (Civic Democrats, ODS) commented on the prisoners' release saying everything had been working well technically so far.

Yet the opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) will initiate a no-confidence vote in the government in the Chamber of Deputies over the amnesty, countersigned by Prime Minister Petr Necas (ODS).

The government TOP 09 has also distanced itself from the amnesty saying the ministers were not informed about it. However, TOP 09 deputies will not support the vote of no confidence in the government.

The junior government LIDEM representatives also said they had not been informed about the amnesty but they respected it. However, they said they considered it too extensive.

Blazek defended Necas's step. He said Necas could not inform the government about Klaus's decision for secrecy reasons. Blazek stressed that the amnesty granting is the president's exclusive power.

Klaus announced the partial amnesty in his New Year's speech on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Czech Republic. It applies to convicts with low suspended or prison sentences, elderly convicts and also suspects whose criminal proceedings have lasted for more than eight years.

Over 7400 out of some 23,000 inmates in Czech prisons will be probably released within it.

Judges have been deciding on the prisoners' release directly in prisons since Wednesday morning.

However, the amnesty does not apply only to those given prison or suspended prison sentences but also to about 12,000 cases of community works and 340 house arrest punishments.

Judges will deal longer with the cases in which suspended sentences are pardoned or the proceedings of which are to be halted.

Some politicians and lawyers have criticised exactly the latter part of the amnesty.

CSSD chairman Bohuslav Sobotka points out that the amnesty will set free the protagonists of big financial crime cases, including siphoning off banks and firms, privatisation frauds and huge tax evasion.

Senate chairman Milan Stech (CSSD) and presidential candidate and former PM Milos Zeman have also expressed objections to the amnesty.

Some lawyers argue that the halting of some big financial crime cases will prevent the damaged parties from obtaining compensation or will make it more difficult to seek it.

According to current information, a total of 22 cases in the agenda of the High State Attorney's Office should be halted, in which the perpetrators caused total damage of over 150 million crowns to the state or financial institutions.

The Supreme State Attorney's Office has set up a special operative group that will help attorneys solve possible problems and ambiguities connected with the amnesty.

Labour offices have increased the number of clerks on duty and strengthened security measures since they expect a higher number of applicants for welfare benefits.

The Prison Service has provided the released inmates without any financial means with some money to cover their journey home.

Police patrols have been reinforced over the amnesty. However, incidents caused by freshly released prisoners have been rarely reported.

($1=19.023 crowns)