Prague, Dec 21 (CTK) – A Prague court imposed a 12-month conditional suspended sentence with a two-year probation on former detective Jiri Komarek for power abuse on Thursday in connection with his public accusation of Police President Tomas Tuhy of a serious leak of information.
Komarek has appealed against the verdict.
The judge, Jitka Drabkova, said Komarek used a very unfortunate way of dealing with his suspicion. He could have addressed the Supreme State Attorney’s Office instead, she said.
Drabkova said Komarek was not allowed to release the information about Tuhy.
Last year, Komarek ranked among the strongest critics of a police reshuffle initiated by Tuhy. He left the police due to the reshuffle and joined the Financial Administration controlled by the Finance Ministry.
The reshuffle was promoted by the Social Democrats (CSSD), while the ANO movement led by Andrej Babis who was charge of the Finance Ministry opposed it.
Within the controversial reshuffle, two elite national police squads fighting corruption (UOKFK) and organised crime (UOOZ), merged to form the National Centre for Organised Crime (NCOZ). The critics claimed the aim was to get all investigation under control of the police management so that it could sweep sensitive cases under the carpet.
UOOZ head Robert Slachta left the police as well.
Komarek accused Tuhy of “a brutal leak of information” in June 2016. He claimed that Tuhy or people around Tuhy warned of a planned police action in a case of allegedly manipulated IT contracts. It turned out that Komarek based his accusation on erroneous information. The mistake was caused by the police inspection.
The General Inspection of the Police Corps (GIBS) levelled accusations against Komarek at the beginning of the year. It said Komarek breached his obligation of confidentiality and impartiality by accusing, still in his capacity as a detective, his superior of a leak of information.
