Prague, Sept 8 (CTK) – The police restructuring was set in motion at the order of Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Czech Social Democrats, CSSD), Jiri Komarek, a former detective from an anti-mafia police team, told a Chamber of Deputies commission on Thursday.
The commission examines the disputed police reform, within which the elite Squad for Uncovering Organised Crime (UOOZ) merged with the Office for Uncovering of Corruption and Financial Crime (UOKFK) into a single National Centre against Organised Crime (NCOZ).
The police restructuring caused a serious rift between two major coalition government partners, the CSSD and ANO.
ANO threatened with withdrawing from the coalition agreement due to the reform, but later it changed its mind.
Komarek said the changes were due to an “election schizophrenia” with the objective of paralysing the work of the UOOZ and of removing its head Robert Slachta.
In reaction to it, Chovanec wrote CTK that Komarek was not telling the truth again.
“He has already faced a criminal complaint over it. I wonder whether he is able to support his words by something else but gossip by third persons with a dubious motivation, which expedient information leaks into media have proved for several weeks,” Chovanec said.
Komarek has so far spoken twice before the commission. The hearing has lasted over ten hours and still has not finished.
“I told the deputies information on the basis of which I believe that this was no planned measure,” Komarek said, commenting on the reform.
Due to the restructuring, Komarek had a sharp dispute with Police President Tomas Tuhy, whom he accused of a “brutal” information leak from investigations.
They have sued each other.
The commission’s meeting will continue in a week with further testimonies.
