Brno, July 10 (CTK) – The ethical commission of the Mendel University in Brno will check the thesis of Tatana Mala despite her announced resignation as justice minister over plagiarism allegations, university spokesman Filip Vrana told CTK on Tuesday.
In addition, the university will have an external legal analysis made on what further steps it should take retroactively in Mala’s case of suspected plagiarism.
The analysis is to be complete within a few weeks.
The 11-member ethical commission has one month to deal with the issue. It is to find out all circumstances and define a possible extent of Mala’s fault.
On Monday, Mala, 36, first emphasised before journalists that in writing her thesis at the Mendel University several years ago, she followed the then rules and proceeded in accordance with the instructions of her supervising teacher.
By no means did she try to cheat the university, but she may have forgotten to introduce parts of her thesis as citations of another source, she said.
Later on Monday, nevertheless, Mala announced her resignation, saying she did not want to face pressure and harm the ANO movement and the new government of ANO and the Social Democrats (CSSD).
At the Mendel University, Mala successfully defended her thesis headlined Microclimatic conditions of rabbit breeding.
After Mala became a part of the cabinet, which was appointed on June 27 and will seek the lower house’s vote of confidence on Wednesday, experts challenged the originality of some parts of her thesis. Similar doubts also persist about another thesis of Mala, which she defended later at the Faculty of Law at the Pan-European University in Bratislava.
