Prague, July 31 (CTK) – State attorneys should have been consulted on the prepared Czech police reform in time, President Milos Zeman said in an online interview on the Blesk.cz server yesterday.
It was a mistake, but the situation has started changing, he added.
However, he expressed doubts about the efficacy of the existing police units to which the reform would apply and the work of state attorneys in the cases with possible links to politicians.
The 870-strong National Centre against Organised Crime (NCOZ) will be launched on Monday after the merger of the police organised crime and corruption squads within the reform.
The police shake-up caused a rift between the ruling Social Democrats (CSSD) and ANO that threatened to leave the government.
The police leadership defends the change and believes that the new body will more effectively fight crime if directed from one place. It is now also dealing with state attorneys’ comments on the reform.
“I naturally wished that the number of cases to be investigated increased,” Zeman said, being asked what he expected from the police reform.
He reminded of his previous words that experts, that is the police president and supreme state attorney, and not politicians should deal with the police reform.
Zeman also said he had prevented a government crisis that would harm stability in the Czech Republic during the dispute about the police reform.
Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (CSSD) signed the reform despite disagreement of ANO that expressed fears of halting the investigation into serious cases.
Zeman also said he believed that a suitable post in state service would be found for the former police organised crime unit (UOOZ) head, Robert Slachta, who had left the police over the planned shake-up.
However, at a meeting with Slachta, Zeman criticised the unpersuasive results of the UOOZ in the case of the former head of PM Petr Necas’s office, Jana Nagyova, now Necasova after marrying Necas. The alleged corruption and surveillance scandal caused the fall of Necas’s cabinet in mid-2013.
The new NCOZ, headed by Michal Mazanek, will have four sections: corruption and serious economic crime, terrorism and extremism, organised crime and cyber crime. Its spokesman will be the current spokesman from corruption police, Jaroslav Ibehej who confirmed it to public Czech Radio.
hol/dr
