Prague, March 7 (CTK) – The Czech Supreme Court has rejected a petition for appellate review filed by the former aide to ex-PM Mirek Topolanek, lobbyist Marek Dalik, who was sent to prison for five years for a fraud linked to a military purchase, the public Czech Television (CT) reported on Wednesday.
It referred to information from Jan Koran of the High State Attorney’s Office.
The court decided on Dalik’s case on February 22, but it did not release the ruling before it worked out its justification and delivered it to the parties in the proceedings.
Dalik, who has pleaded not guilty, is now serving his prison term. This was his second petition for appellate review.
Dalik was originally sentenced to four years in prison for having asked for a bribe on behalf of a member of the cabinet at an informal meeting dealing with the purchase of the Pandur armoured personnel carriers (APC) purchase in November 2007.
According to the indictment, Dalik asked for half a billion crowns from a representative of the supplier, the Austrian Steyr company.
After he started serving his sentence in mid-2016, the Supreme Court cancelled the verdict last spring and he was immediately released.
The Prague Court ruled a new definitive and even one-year tougher verdict last July. It said Dalik committed fraud by trying to lure money from Steyr and misleading the firm by pretending having an influence on the cabinet.
The purchase of 200 Pandurs worth over 20 billion crowns was approved by the cabinet of Jiri Paroubek (then Social Democrats, CSSD) in 2006. In late 2007, Topolanek’s cabinet withdrew from the deal, citing a breach of the contractual conditions by the supplier. Half a year later, nevertheless, it decided on a new supply, the purchase of 107 Pandurs worth 14.4 billion crowns.
