Prague, Nov 15 (CTK) – The check of a leak of information in the case of manipulated IT contracts was regular and unbiased, though information did leak, Olomouc Deputy High State Attorney Petr Sereda told journalists after his questioning by the lower house commission enquiring into a recent police shakeup yesterday.
Former detective Jiri Komarek previously accused Police President Tomas Tuhy of a “brutal” leak of information within the case of 14 public IT contracts worth several hundred million of crowns, in which 27 people and two firms face criminal charges.
The commission’s enquiry has shown, however, that Komarek’s accusation was untrue. None of Tuhy’s aides seems to have sent a warning message about a planned anti-corruption police raid.
No leak of information has been confirmed, the commission chairman Pavel Blazek (Civic Democrats, ODS) told journalists.
Komarek is a critic of the police shakeup ordered by Tuhy and supported by Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Social Democrats, CSSD), within which the police’s two national units, the anti-mafia (UOOZ) and anti-corruption (UOKFK) ones, merged to form a single organised crime squad.
The critics, including former UOOZ officers, the ANO movement of Finance Minister Andrej Babis and some state attorneys, say the shakeup, in effect since August, has been expedient and aimed to thwart the UOOZ’s investigations into serious cases.
Commenting on Komarek’s accusation of Tuhy, Sereda said information undoubtedly leaked from the investigation of the IT contracts case but he resolutely dismissed the investigation having been wrong or tendentious.
A mistake may have been made in the police decision shelving the case, Sereda admitted.
Opposing his opinion, Blazek said effective investigations unusually end in a suspect being brought to a trial and convicted.
“The practice where the [investigators] tell the media who the suspects are, and then they shelve the case, is an example of absolutely wrong methods of investigation and communication with the public,” Blazek, former justice minister, said.
If Komarek and other critics, with their leak of information accusation, aimed to prevent the police shakeup, it was a huge or strategic mistake, Blazek said.
“Their statements can never be proved, in my opinion,” Blazek said.
He said the statements unnecessarily triggered uproar on the political scene and they led to the establishment of the lawmakers’ commission tasked to clear up the shakeup’s circumstances.
The lower house commission enquiring into the police shakeup met for the 12th time yesterday. At its last meeting due on December 8, it will again question Tuhy, his former deputy Zdenek Laube, and Olomouc High State Attorney Ivo Istvan.
The deadline for the commission to submit its enquiry results is January 31.
($1=25.080 crowns)
