Prague, March 15 (CTK) – Prague High Court judge Ivan Elischer, arrested on suspicion of corruption, was remanded in custody on Thursday, his defence lawyer Lucie Kyckova told journalists.
A Prague district court made this decision because it concluded that Elischer might influence witnesses who will be interrogated in his case and continue committing crime.
Kyckova said Elischer filed a complaint against his remanding in custody. She said her client does not want to provide any further information on the case.
According to the charges that are available to CTK, Elischer faces up to 12 years in prison for bribe taking, abuse of power and favouritism.
His case is supervised by the Prague Municipal State Attorney’s Office and the National Centre against Organised Crime (NCOZ) deals with it.
Along with Elischer, five other people and state attorneys also proposed their remanding in custody.
State attorney Vladimir Pazourek who supervises the case said one of the five other suspects who have been charged within Elischer’s case was remanded in custody.
This person is Hung Quoc Nguyen, who allegedly had very close relations with Elischer since July 2013. According to the charges, this ethnic Vietnamese was the connection between Elischer and the suspects who offered bribes.
None of the four other people charged in the case has been remanded in custody, however, the court is still deciding on one of them and the verdict will be released on Friday, its spokesman Michal Dvorak said.
Justice Minister Robert Pelikan (ANO) received state attorneys’ proposal that Elischer be temporarily suspended as a judge pending the investigation.
Pelikan said he is very likely to suspend Elischer because the case is very serious. The accusations indicate that it was a failure of a single judge, not of the system, he said.
He said he cannot imagine that anything Elischer would say could change his mind.
Pelikan said his ministry would make a thorough check of the decisions that Elischer has made as judge.
Elischer, 57, has worked at the Prague High Court since 2013. He focused primarily on serious drug crimes. In the past, he also worked at the Regional Court in Usti, north Bohemia.
According to daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD), Elischer lowered the punishment of criminals whom he tried if they paid for it.
