Prague, June 8 (CTK) – The Czech government ANO wants special negotiations between the three government partners to deal with the Interior Ministry’s plan to reorganise the Czech police, since its request that the plan be scrapped was rejected by the coalition parties’ leaders yesterday, ANO head Andrej Babis said.
Justice Minister Robert Pelikan (ANO) said he disagrees with the plan and is considering resigning over it.
Babis said Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka believes that the issue is within the powers of the Interior Ministry headed by Milan Chovanec (both Social Democrats, CSSD).
“The reorganisation may thwart or even stop the investigation of serious cases of corruption and economic crime,” Pelikan told journalists.
State attorneys feel similar apprehensions as well, he said.
ANO wants the special negotiations to be attended by representatives of the CSSD, ANO and the third coalition partner, the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), and also by state attorneys.
Pelikan told journalists that no one has explained to him why the police reorganisation should start all of a sudden as from July 1.
“It makes an impression of an expedient reorganisation whose real goal is to punish the [police] Squad for the unveiling of organised crime (UOOZ) for being really independent and investigating cases regardless of the direction in which they develop,” Pelikan said.
“I am convinced that the reorganisation in this form will not make it through. If it did, I would consider what to do next, because in such a situation I could only hardly bear responsibility for the fight against corruption,” Pelikan added.
Chovanec rejects the politicising of the planned police reorganisation by ANO assisted by the media linked to it, he wrote in a press statement sent to CTK.
The reorganisation has been prepared professionally and with the aim to make the fight against crime more effective, Chovanec said.
“The police are independent and they cannot be undermined by targeted political pre-election campaigns,” Chovanec wrote, lashing out at ANO.
The reorganisation is in harmony with law, implemented by the Police Presidium and approved only by the interior minister, Chovanec added.
Earlier yesterday, Police President Tomas Tuhy announced that the police want to create a National Centre Against Organised Crime, which would include five special departments.
The information about the planned police reorganisation appeared in the media in the past days, and met with the criticism from state attorneys, including Supreme State Attorney Pavel Zeman, and from anti-corruption NGOs, who say the project could influence the investigation of complex criminal cases and oust Robert Slachta as widely-known UOOZ head.
rtj/dr/kva
