Prague/Hradec Kralove, East Bohemia, Nov 25 (CTK) – The Czech police detained, in a road check on Tuesday, a 30-year-old Turk who was Interpol-wanted because he is convicted of a crime with a terrorist subtext but shuns serving his jail sentence, the Police Presidium´s spokeswoman Jana Macalikova told CTK yesterday.
Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Social Democrats, CSSD) said the arrest of the man shows the effectiveness of the security measures Prague has taken after the Paris terrorist attacks.
According to unofficial information, there are no links between the man detained in the Czech Republic and the attacks in Paris.
The officers from the emergency and escort department of the Hradec Kralove Regional Police Directorate detained the man on Tuesday morning.
“They checked him within a road control, after choosing his vehicle based on its foreign number plate,” Macalikova said.
A subsequent consultation of the police register showed that an international warrant for the man´s arrest had been issued.
“According to available registers, he was convicted of links to an organisation with political interests incompatible with the state establishment of Turkey,” Macalikova said.
At present, the Turkish national remains in detention and the police are going to propose that he be taken into extradition custody.
Regional police spokeswoman Ivana Jezkova told CTK that the man was arrested around 15:00 on Tuesday on a road in the regional centre Hradec Kralove.
“While detained, he put up no resistance. The police operation was smooth, without any complications,” Jezkova said.
According to unofficial information, a Turkish court previously convicted the man over his cooperation with the Kurdistan Workers´ Party (PKK) that fights for the establishment of an independent Kurdish state.
Chovanec has referred about the detention “of a wanted person, suspected of links to terrorists,” on Twitter.
He thanked the police for perfect work and said the man´s detention proves that the Czech security measures work effectively.
Czech Police President Tomas Tuhy, too, said the detention of the man is clearly a consequence of the recent tightening of security measures by the Czech police.
The stricter security measures are to be in force until the end of the year at the least, Chovanec said earlier yesterday.
rtj/dr/pv
