Prague, Feb 6 (CTK) – The German police arrested the former Czech Civic Democrat (ODS) senator and ex-mayor, Alexandr Novak, one of the 24 people accused in a case of extensive subsidy frauds, at the Frankfurt airport on Christmas Eve last year, the Czech-German police centre in Bavaria told CTK yesterday.
Novak was detained on the basis of a European arrest warrant, the centre, seated in Schwandorf, said.
A court in Frankfurt am Main is supposed to decide on Novak’s extradition to the Czech Republic, the centre added.
The public Czech Radio has reported that Novak arrived in Frankfurt from Los Angeles.
Novak is prosecuted in the case of the Regional Operational Programme (ROP) Northwest that applied to subsidies in the Usti (north Bohemia) and Karlovy Vary (west Bohemia) regions.
The proceedings against one man, prosecuted in connection with the activities of the Regional Council of Northwest Cohesion Region, are underway in Germany on the basis of a European arrest warrant, state attorney Tomas Minx, from the High State Attorney’s Office in Prague, said in a press release.
The police have not yet served the accusations on Novak since he was abroad during the respective police raid last year.
Politicians, senior officials and businesspeople from both regions are accused in the case. A major part of them are experts assessing the projects.
They were giving points to the projects seeking subsidies and the ROP Northwest committee made final decisions on them on the basis of their recommendations.
The ROP supported 536 projects with a total of 19.4 billion crowns. The suspects caused damage of up to 13.9 billion crowns, according to reliable sources.
Social Democrat (CSSD) senior regional politicians have been accused in the case, including Karlovy Vary regional CSSD organisation head Petr Navratil, former Usti regional governor Jana Vanhova, former CSSD Usti regional organisation head Arno Fisera, deputy regional governors Jakub Panik and Miloslav Cermak and former deputy regional governor Petr Horky (all CSSD).
The CSSD has been the senior government party since 2013, while the right-wing ODS has been in opposition.
Apart from Novak, other ODS members have been accused in the case, such as businessman Daniel Jezek, the only one in the group to have been taken into custody, regional health care centre director Petr Fiala and former Most mayor Vladimir Bartl, who now heads an Industry and Trade Ministry section.
In the past, Novak was sentenced to four years in prison for having taken a 40-million-crown bribe. He was released in 2015 after serving a half the sentence.
The bribery case dates back to 1999 when Novak occupied the post of the Chomutov mayor. The Chomutov Town Hall sold then the shares of the Severoceska energetika and Severoceska plynarenska power and gas companies to the German firm VNG Leipzig for over 317 million crowns.
VNG Leipzig sent 2.27 million German marks (an equivalent of 40 million crowns) to a certain Peter Schmel for the mediation of the deal, which ended up in Novak’s private account.
The police started arresting suspects of subsidy frauds in north Bohemia two weeks before Christmas 2016. They investigate the allocation of subsidies at the beginning of the programme in 2008.
The ROP Northwest was accompanied by serious shortcomings and courts are dealing with several cases connected with it. Former ROP Northwest head Petr Kusnierz figures in most of them.
He was sent to prison for five years for taking bribes and abuse of power and released on parole in 2014.
This year, the Usti Regional Court sentenced him to seven years for manipulating projects, but the verdict has not taken effect yet.
Kusnierz is also one of the accused in the latest case, along with Novak.
($1=25.155 crowns)
