Klaus would declare amnesty again despite attacks it provoked

Prague, March 7 (CTK) - Outgoing Czech President Vaclav Klaus holds by his New Year amnesty and he would declare it again in spite of his experience with the sharp and mean attack that his political rivals waged afterwards, Klaus said in his last presidential speech on Czech Television Thursday.

The accusation that the amnesty article that halted long lasting criminal proceedings was meant to help criminals is one of the most repugnant slanders Klaus has met with during his political career, he said.

He referred to the amnesty's Article 2 halting the proceedings that lasted for more than eight years and carrying a ten-year sentence at the most.

The article came under criticism as the halted proceedings involved a number of cases of large-scale fraud and corruption.

"The unprecedented media caricature of its [amnesty's] meaning, content and consequences, based on the idea that a lie becomes the truth if repeated hundred times, had the only aim and purpose: to blacken my whole performance as president," Klaus, whose second five-year mandate expires at midnight Thursday, said.

He said he felt it his duty to declare the amnesty. Reconciliation, forgiveness and giving of a chance to start anew belong to democracy, he added.

In February, the critics challenged Klaus's amnesty at the Constitutional Court (US), which, however, said it would not deal with the issue.

This Monday, the Senate, the upper house of parliament, voted to sue Klaus for high treason in connection with the amnesty and some of Klaus's other steps that the critics consider at variance with the constitution.

Klaus Thursday said the amnesty was not what his critics were actually aiming at.

"I should have reckoned with this, but the meanness and sharpness of my political rivals' attack went beyond my expectations. It culminated with the lawsuit the [left-dominated] Senate approved a few days ago," Klaus said.

Klaus said it would have been more comfortable for him to do nothing.

If so, however, he would have to give up his idea of doing politics that he has espoused since 1989 and promoted for almost half a century, Klaus said.

He said he is prepared to do his utmost to prevent similar "Jacobin-like" actions from repeating.