Senate questions PM's role in amnesty

Prague, March 14 (CTK) - Czech Senate chairman Milan Stech (opposition Social Democrats, CSSD) and constitutional and legal committee head Miroslav Antl (for the CSSD) have asked Supreme State Attorney Pavel Zeman to check whether PM Petr Necas committed crime by countersigning the presidential amnesty.

Stech and Antl say Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS) may be suspected of abusing power because he signed the then president Vaclav Klaus's New Year amnesty without having submitted it to the cabinet for discussion.

Necas reacted by linking Stech's step with the forthcoming election congress of the CSSD.

"It is nothing but a part of their games ahead of the congress, which also say much of his intellectual capacity," Necas told CTK via his spokesman Michal Schuster.

In their request on Wednesday, Stech and Antl wrote that the Government Office has not registered any form of communication with the Presidential Office about the amnesty.

Moreover, the cabinet members admit that the cabinet did not discuss the amnesty, Stech and Antl wrote.

"Under the constitution, the government as a whole is responsible [for nodding to amnesties]," they pointed out.

They said Necas thwarted the chance of the government to assess and discuss the presidential amnesty's impacts by which he transgressed his powers and "totally gave up [the government's] role as a constitutional safeguard."

Necas may be suspected of committing a crime, even if he acted with negligence, Stech and Antl wrote.

Their request was delivered to the Supreme State Attorney's Office (NSZ) at noon yesterday.

"The supreme state attorney will study and assess it, and possibly pass to the relevant state attorney's office[in Prague]," NSZ spokeswoman Helena Markusova said.

Stech and Antl also called on Zeman to ask his subordinates to submit a special report on complaints that have been lodged against Necas or his cabinet members over Necas's signature of the presidential amnesty and to release information on how the complaints have been investigated and with what results.

Early last week the CSSD-dominated Senate voted to file high treason charges against Klaus with the Constitutional Court. The critics reproach Klaus for the amnesty and other controversial steps that, they say, grossly violated the Czech constitutional order.