Prague, June 20 (CTK) – Czech Police President Tomas Tuhy is suspected of a “brutal” leak of information within the investigation of economic crime, Jiri Komarek, head of the police organised crime (UOOZ) department in Ostrava, north Moravia, has told Czech Television (CT).
Tuhy dismissed the allegation. He criticised UOOZ top officials for making statements to the media first, which he said is illegitimate and very manipulative.
Tuhy considers it pressure exerted on the police management by the outgoing UOOZ head, Robert Slachta, and his supporters who want to thwart the planned police reform, he said in a press release.
Komarek said Tuhy is suspected of leaking information on a case involving hundreds of millions of crowns.
He also said he wants to present pieces of evidence to the lower house security committee to prove that the planned police reform is not aimed to improve the work of the police but to oust Slachta as head of the UOOZ, a national elite squad.
In reaction, Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Social Democrats, CSSD) said police officers who suspect their colleagues of crime must report it to the the General Inspection of the Police Corps (GIBS) according to the rules.
Komarek said he would not turn to the GIBS because he previously registered its attempts to gain access to an open case file the UOOZ investigators keep.
“I will ask the lower house security committee to hear me and my director next week,” Komarek said, adding that the evidence he may submit is extremely serious.
Chovanec indicated that the steps taken by Komarek and Slachta do not inspire confidence. “I cannot understand why some UOOZ members declared their readiness to report to a closed meeting of the lower house security committee and on the same day they released this serious piece of information to the media,” he said.
The investigation of such open cases must not be broadcast live by the media, Chovanec said.
He said he supposed that he and the police management would take part in a possible meeting of the parliamentary committee on alleged links between criminal groups and the police.
Former police president Martin Cervicek, who is a security expert of the opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) now, said the issue should not be discussed by a closed meeting of the security committee.
“If there is any suspicion, the submitted evidence should be assessed first of all by state attorneys who should take possible further steps,” Cervicek said.
Instead, the security committee should discuss the proposed police reform with Chovanec as communication about the reform was “tragic,” he said.
Komarek has decided to leave the police in protest against the recently announced plan to merge the UOOZ with another national unit, the anti-corruption squad (UOKFK).
The plan, prepared by the police command and backed by Chovanec, has met with sharp opposition from many UOOZ officers, state attorneys and the government ANO movement, which calls it unprepared and suspicious.
Departure from the police has also been announced by Slachta, who, too, told CT that he wants to inform MPs about links between the police and organised crime perpetrators.
Komarek said GIBS officers have attempted to gain access to the file concerning the case codenamed Vidkun, in which the UOOZ intervened in the Olomouc Region, north Moravia, last October.
In the case, several people are suspected of influencing police investigation and leaking information from criminal files. The suspects include two high-ranking police officers, a businessman and Olomouc Region Governor Jiri Rozboril (CSSD).
Komarek said it ensues from the developments in the Vidkun case that the goal of the planned police reform, over which the CSSD and ANO clashed in recent days, is not to improve the police’s work.
“Something else is at stake. I have evidence to prove it, but I cannot speak of it as I am still a policeman who is pledged to secrecy,” he told CT.
The police restructuring is an expedient step aimed to destroy the UOOZ, he added.
($1=24.052 crowns)
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