Prague, July 29 (CTK) – A 870-strong National Centre against Organised Crime (NCOZ) will be launched on Monday in the Czech Republic following the merger of the mafia and corruption squads which caused a rift between the ruling Social Democrats (CSSD) and ANO that threatened to leave the government.
The police leadership defends the change and believes that the new body will more effectively fight crime if directed from one place.
Police President Tomas Tuhy says the elite squads’ members will not recognise the change.
“They will continue doing the same work they have been doing until now,” Tuhy told CTK.
He said the police have settled all suggestions state attorneys made on the planned reform.
Tuhy said it has been ensured that the same teams of investigators will continue working on open cases.
The new body will not deal with leaks of information from files, which will be investigated by the same team of police, but under the drug centre, Tuhy said.
He said a majority of the leadership of the new body will be the people who worked in both former elite squads.
The NCOZ will be headed by Michal Mazanek who investigated murders in the past and who was head of the national crime investigators in the past year.
His deputies will be Jaroslav Vild and Milan Komarek. The third position has not yet been filled.
The new Centre will have four sections: corruption and serious economic crime, terrorism and extremism, organised crime and cyber crime.
The emergence of the new body caused a political rift. Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (CSSD) signed the prepared changes despite disagreement of ANO which fears the investigation into serious cases will be stopped.
The government crisis was behind the one-month postponement of the launch of the reform.
The loudest critic of the shake-up is Robert Slachta, former mafia squad head, who left the police as from June 30.
State attorneys are checking whether the reform may be nothing but an old plan for removing Slachta.
A few complaints have been filed in connection with the reform. One slander complaint targets former police Jiri Komarek, from the mafia squad’s branch in Ostrava, north Moravia, who has accused Police President Tuhy of “brutal” leaks from files.
Komarek, for his part, filed a complaint against Tuhy, his deputy Zdenek Laube and Chovanec. Komarek considers the restructuring sabotage.
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