Olomouc, North Moravia, Oct 15 (CTK) – Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, Social Democrat (CSSD) head, will meet Jiri Rozboril (CSSD), Olomouc Region governor who has been accused of bribery in a corruption case, after his return from Brussels in Olomouc on Friday, he wrote on Twitter yesterday.
Rozboril said at a press conference yesterday he will not resign from the post for now, adding that the accusation is a misunderstanding and that he has lodged a complaint against it.
He said he will discuss his remaining in the posts of regional governor and the CSSD’s number one candidate in the 2016 regional polls with Sobotka and with his fellow party members.
Rozboril said he also wants to discuss the issue with representatives of the Communist Party (KSCM), which is the CSSD’s coalition partner in the regional government.
The police have levelled corruption and power abuse accusations against Rozboril and another three people, including two police officers. They would face up to ten years in prison, if found guilty.
“The case is of a size that is unprecedented in the Olomouc Region’s history,” said Rozboril.
He said he has never demanded information from anyone beyond his powers as mayor.
“I have never required information that could be called unusual, nor have I ever offered a bribe to anyone. From my point of view, I was only at a wrong place in a wrong moment,” Rozboril said.
He said he is not the key person in the case and that he feels personally harmed by it.
Sobotka said earlier yesterday he expects Rozboril to resign from his public and party posts if the information about his accusation proves true.
Rozboril told journalists he wants to inform Sobotka in person about the case.
He said unless he feels support from Sobotka, the CSSD regional executive committee and CSSD representatives in the regional bodies, he will make a decision on his remaining in the posts he holds now.
Two persons have been accused of abuse of power, one of bribe taking. The fourth has been accused of complicity in abuse of public office.
Three of them, not including Rozboril, have been taken into custody.
According to CTK’s information, the three are the Olomouc regional police deputy head, Karel Kadlec, financial crime section head Radek Petruj, and influential Olomouc businessman Ivan Kysely.
Media reported that the police have revealed an extensive clientelistic network of officials from several public administration institutions, police officers and businesspeople. They suspect several high police officers of influencing the investigation into some cases and leaking information to suspects for money.
The case is allegedly connected with real estate deals and subsidy programmes.
Rozboril heads the body managing the Regional operational programme Middle Moravia, through which subsidies worth billions of crowns flow to the Olomouc Region.
On Tuesday, the police made a series of home searches and detained and questioned several people within the Vidkun operation, which also focuses on the leadership of the Olomouc regional police, or suspicious links between Kadlec and Kysely, which the police inspection body (GIBS) investigated but shelved in the past.
($1=23.762 crowns)
