Prague, Feb 2 (CTK) – The Chamber of Deputies passed a resolution calling on the Czech government to deal with the situation at the Olomouc High State Attorney’s Office after a more than six hours long debate about the final report of a commission dealing with the controversial police shakeup on Thursday.
The Chamber recommended that the government consider personnel changes in the top posts of the Olomouc High State Attorney’s Office. However, Supreme State Attorney Pavel Zeman said he can see no reason for replacements of his subordinates because of the commission’s report.
The commission concluded that the aim of the police shakeup was neither to remove former elite police chief Robert Slachta, nor to restrict the activities of police squads, nor prevent investigation of cases.
The commission investigated the police shakeup for more than six months. Its head Pavel Blazek (Civic Democrats, ODS) said the police management were not obliged to acquaint state attorneys with their planned shakeup. He nevertheless said the plan was not discussed in advance enough, which was a mistake of former deputy police president Zdenek Laube.
The commission revealed no evidence proving that the shakeup was related to any business or political interests.
The commission said the main opponents of the shakeup, Slachta and his former subordinate and detective Jiri Komarek, acted in a unprofessional manner.
The commission criticised the Olomouc High State Attorney’s Office for the release of unverified and untrue information related to the police shakeup, and thus getting actively involved in political life.
Olomouc Deputy High State Attorney Petr Sereda is suspected of letting former detective Jiri Komarek see a resolution of the General Inspection of Security Forces (GIBS) without being authorised to do so.
After a stormy debate, the Chamber decided that Finance Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) should apologise to the commission for his statements. Babis said the commission’s final report was humbug, mockery and a dirty job. He faces no punishment if he refuses to apologise.
The ANO movement challenged the police shakeup last year, having even threatened to leave the government due to it.
Justice Minister Robert Pelikan (ANO) criticised the Chamber’s resolution. He said this was a political decision and state attorneys must remain independent. Pelikan said he should not be ordered to replace attorneys based on such a decision.
The commission’s final report on the police shakeup renewed the old dispute between ANO and the Social Democrats (CSSD). The CSSD claimed that ANO is abusing the police in its election campaign, while ANO insisted on that the real aim of the police shakeup was to get under control detectives who dared to investigate corruption of CSSD politicians.
Chamber chairman Jan Hamacek (CSSD) said Babis challenged the foundations of democracy by his statements about the commission’s work.
Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (CSSD) said the ANO campaign against the police reform was based on lies and slander and the allegations collapsed like a house of cards.
The CSSD pointed out that all members of the commission, from various parties, supported the report.
Slachta said the commission’s report is absolutely insufficient. Though the commission was set up because of the police shakeup, the report deals with it only marginally, he said.
The commission’s member Daniel Korte (opposition TOP 09) said the campaign against the police shakeup wanted to harm the Social Democrats and PM Sobotka and topple Police President Tomas Tuhy and Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (CSSD).
The Chamber called on the government to prepare an amendment to the Penal Code so that state attorney do not supervise the investigation of other state attorneys suspected of committing crime. The Chamber also wants to take the right to investigate crime instead of police away from state attorneys.
The country’s chief attorney, Zeman, and the Czech association of state attorneys criticised these proposals.
