Deputy PM Peake expects gov't to discuss Klaus's amnesty

Prague, Jan 6 (CTK) - Czech Deputy Prime Minister for anti-corruption fight Karolina Peake (LIDEM) expects the government to discuss the amnesty declared by President Vaclav Klaus at its next meeting, she said in the Duel debate programme on Prima Family TV Sunday.

She added that she would like to know the reasons why Prime Minister Petr Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS) countersigned it.

Necas and Justice Minister Pavel Blazek (ODS) should explain to the government why they had agreed with such broad amnesty, Peake said.

Klaus's secretary Ladislav Jakl dismissed Sunday that the amnesty could be applied in big corruption cases.

Finance Minister and TOP 09 deputy chairman Miroslav Kalousek said in the Questions of Vaclav Moravec discussion programme on public Czech Television that under the constitution the government was not accountable for the form of the amnesty but only for its implementation.

TOP 09 distanced itself from the amnesty extent earlier this week.

"The government as a whole is not accountable for the amnesty consequences. It is responsible only for the accomplishment of the president's decision," Kalousek explained.

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. The prosecution is halted if the maximum sentence length that can be imposed in such cases does not exceed ten years.

The amnesty will concern some 32,000 people, according to the Justice Ministry's estimates.

Jakl, head of the presidential Office's political section, said in the TV debate that the amnesty cannot apply to the perpetrators of serious corruption.

He reacted to a statement by Social Democrat (CSSD) deputy chairman Lubomir Zaoralak who said Klaus amnesty was a general pardon granted to those had been thieving. He hinted at serious corruption suspects and culprits.

Under the Penal Code, perpetrators of serious corruption face up to 12 years in prison. Consequently, they cannot profit from the presidential amnesty as it applies to the sentence level of up to ten years only, Jakl said.

The opposition wants to initiate a no-confidence vote in the government in the Chamber of Deputies over the amnesty exactly because Necas countersigned it.

Zaoralek also said the president "went mad" and he "threw 7000 criminals down to the nation to deal with them."

Some 7000 inmates are to leave prisons within the amnesty. Over 6000 have already been released.