Prague, March 29 (CTK) – The second branch of the case of former influential politician David Rath will definitively return to the Czech police since the High State Attorney’s Office did not file a complaint against the respective court decision, the Lidovky.cz server reported yesterday.
The Prague Regional Court returned the case to the police to complete the investigation due to unlawful wiretapping in January and it ordered to repeat the questioning of some witnesses.
Detectives have proposed that nine people and eight firms, including the Metrostav big building company, be charged with manipulating public orders of the Central Bohemia Region and regional hospitalsin the case.
According to the police, the accused in the second branch asked for the bribes of 66.4 million crowns of which they accepted 3.4 million crowns.
The suspicious contracts for more than 700 million crowns in total were for the reconstruction and construction of pavilions of the hospitals in Kladno, Mlada Boleslav and Kolin and supplies of ambulances to the Central Bohemian Emergency Service.
Last October, the Prague High Court also cancelled the verdict in the first branch of the case of Rath and other ten people due to the unlawful use of wiretappings. It returned the case to the Regional Court that cannot use the wiretapping recordings as evidence in new proceedings.
The Regional Court sentenced Rath, CSSD lawmaker (2006-2012), Central Bohemia governor (2008-2012) and health minister (2005-2006), to 8.5 years in prison and the forfeiture of some 20 million crowns for corruption in July 2015.
The court also returned the other branch of the case for reappraisal because of the amendment to the Penal Law that modifies the criminal liability of firms. According to the new wording, valid since last December, firms cannot be prosecuted if they put the maximum effort in preventing their employees’ unlawful behaviour.
($1=24.883 crowns)
hol/dr
