Police shelve complaint about smear ad in presidential race

Prague, March 19 (CTK) - The Czech police have shelved the criminal complaint over the ad against presidential candidate Karel Schwarzenberg on the day of the presidential runoff vote lodged by Schwarzenberg's team, the server Tyden.cz said Tuesday, referring to police spokeswoman Andrea Zoulova.

The advertisement appeared in the Blesk tabloid. Headlined "Don't vote for Karel Schwarzenberg," it warned of what it presented as dangerous views and statements of Schwarzenberg, conservative foreign minister who was battling leftist candidate Milos Zeman for presidency in the election run-off vote.

It "cited" Schwarzenberg as saying that under the present law, the post-war Czechoslovak president Edvard Benes would face The Hague tribunal for war criminals, that the post-war transfer of Germans from Czechoslovakia was unjust and that the Benes Decrees are invalid.

It also said Schwarzenberg thanked Sudeten German Landsmannschaft representative Bernd Posselt for support.

Posselt, however, told Czech Television that he had not made any statement on the Czech presidential election.

Schwarzenberg, too, resolutely dismissed the accusation of acting to the benefit of "war criminals" and their property claims in the Czech Republic.

"The conducted investigation has not found any facts corroborating the suspicion of a criminal act, offence against the law or administrative delict," Zoulova said.

Schwarzenberg's team concluded that the ad had violated the election law and may have been evaluated as scare-mongering.

The election team of Zeman, who was eventually elected, has distanced itself from the ad, saying it had nothing in common with it.

The company Ringier Axel Springer CZ that publishes Blesk has said the ad was ordered by the agency Mindshare for its client, lawyer Vladimir Zavadil.

Tyden.cz said it could not be ruled out that the lawyer would be disciplinary punished by the Czech Bar Association.

"The investigation has not been closed," the Czech Bar Association's spokeswoman Iva Chaloupkova has said.