Prague, Dec 8 (CTK) – Czech Communist (KSCM) MEP Miloslav Ransdorf brought documents refuting he committed any crime to yesterday’s meeting with the party board, party leader Vojtech Filip told journalists after it.
On Thursday, the Swiss police detained Ransdorf along with three Slovaks in a Zurich bank and then questioned them on suspicion of a financial fraud. Ransdorf and two of the Slovaks were then released from custody.
Corinne Bouvard, spokeswoman for the High State Attorney´s Office in Zurich, told CTK yesterday that the Swiss authorities view all the four men as accused and prosecuted over property delicts.
Ransdorf said the case was not finished for him. He said after consulting his lawyers, he would clear his name.
Ransdorf has ruled out the suggestion that he might have been tricked by frauds.
“Before leaving for Switzerland, I had a chance to see the documents that proved that the inheritance was a real affair,” Ransdorf said.
He said he believed he had “harmed someone’s interests.”
“I absolutely deny being tricked by any frauds,” he added.
Ransdorf said he had made a mistake when not taking into account how powerful the banking sector in Switzerland is.
“Along with police, it is basically the decisive force in the state,” Ransdorf said.
According to Czech Television (CT), the case is reminiscent of an older case, in which Vladimir Hunek, a previously convicted fraudster, promised money to people if they helped him gain the inheritance his late female relative left for him in Switzerland.
Ransdorf refers to V.H. as the person for whom he wanted to mediate the access to inheritance in the Zurich bank. The year of the death of the alleged rich female relative, a Czech emigrant, is identical in the two cases as well.
Addressed by CT, Ransdorf declined to confirm whether he acted on behalf of Hunek.
Hunek did not answer CT´s question either.
Filip said the party board had seen the documents refuting the allegations that Ransdorf had committed a crime.
“This was also verified by the position of the state attorney’s office that no charges were brought against him,” Filip said.
KSCM deputy chairwoman Miloslava Vostra said the case had finished for the party yesterday and it would not comment on it any longer.
“We firmly believe that the steps to be taken by Ransdorf will explain the whole situation and clear him,” Vostra said.
On Monday, Ransdorf is to explain the case at an extraordinary meeting of the EP´s left faction in Strasbourg, CT said.
Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak said on Saturday Ransdorf and the three Slovaks had attempted to transfer a high sum on the basis of false documents in Switzerland and this was why the bank had called the police. The sum concerned was 350 million euros, the Slovak media reported.
Ransdorf has denied any wrongdoing.
He has told the media that he did not want to collect any money at the Swiss bank and only wanted to gain information on the inheritance from a Swiss citizen who died in 2005. A Czech citizen was the heir, he added.
Ransdorf said the money was certainly not any inheritance from an SS-man as alleged by the media or the property of the Jews who deposited it in the bank during the war.
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