Prague, Dec 3 (CTK) – Rostislav Pilc, chief of the military office of Czech President Milos Zeman, has recently lost the security clearance of the top secret level and without the clearance he would have to leave his post, daily Lidove noviny (LN) wrote on Thursday.
The National Security Office (NBU) removed the top secret clearance from Pilc in the past few days.
Pilc´s lawyer Daniel Volak confirmed the news. He said Pilc would appeal the decision. The NBU did not give any clear reason why the clearance was removed from him, Volak told the paper.
According to LN, Pilc was harmed by the unlawful spying scandal of Jana Nagyova (now Necasova). When she headed the prime minister´s office, Nagyova allegedly ordered the military intelligence to gather compromising material on the wife of then prime minister Petr Necas, whose secret lover Nagyova was. The Necas government fell over the scandal in mid-2013.
Pilc is a witness in the Nagyova trial. Unlike the military intelligence officials, Pilc claimed that they had no right to spy on Necas´s wife Radka, the paper writes.
Pilc headed the military intelligence in 2013-14. He replaced Milan Kovanda who was suspended over the Nagyova case.
LN writes that the documents based on which Pilc lost his clearance were worked out by the military intelligence.
At the request of the investigators of the Nagyova case, Pilc allegedly made changes in a document describing security risks concerning Necas´s surrounding, a source told the paper.
But Pilc´s former colleagues from the military intelligence may have also taken revenge on him for his testimony in court, LN writes.
The chief of the president´s military office is an influential military official as the president performs the role of the supreme commander of the armed forces through him. The military office chief is responsible for the guard of the Prague Castle, in which the presidential seat is located.
Pilc also worked out materials based on which generals were named, LN writes.
Vratislav Mynar, who has been heading the Presidential Office since early 2013, is without a security clearance, too. He applied for it two years ago, but did not receive it this year. He appealed the decision two months ago. Zeman backed Mynar. He said he would not dismiss Mynar unless all ways of appealing the verdict were exhausted.
President Zeman will make a decision on Pilc after he receives more information about the case from him, Zeman´s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek told CTK.
“The president will talk to the general about the whole case in the next few days. No decision can be expected until then,” Ovcacek said.
