Prague, Nov 10 (CTK) – Robert Slachta, former head of the police Squad for Uncovering Organised Crime (UOOZ), disagrees with the testimony of some witnesses before the Chamber of Deputies commission investigating the Czech police reform, Slachta told journalists after he spoke before it yesterday.
He said he had left the meeting angry because he answered the questions of personal nature which were not related to the police reshuffle, he added.
Slachta was one of the biggest critics of the merger of “his” unit with the anti-corruption police team.
He left the police in protest.
“I say I am leaving rather angry. Some questions asked by some commission members were rather of a personal nature,” Slachta said, adding that some questions were not relating to the reform at all.
The merger of the UOOZ with the corruption squad into the National Centre against Organised Crime (NCOZ) caused a rift between the two major government parties, the Social Democrats (CSSD) of PM Bohuslav Sobotka and the ANO movement of Finance Minister Andrej Babis, which threatened to leave the government.
The police leadership defends the change arguing that the new central body will fight crime more effectively. ANO and other critics called the shakeup suspicious, counter-productive and aimed to oust Slachta.
Slachta said he had proposed to the deputies that they question some of his fellow workers from the UOOZ who could react to some earlier testimonies.
He said they had either left the police or were about to do so. They should explain their reasons to the commission, he added.
After the questioning of another witness, investigator Milan Vaculik from the General Inspection Body of Security Forces (GIBS), the commission head Pavel Blazek (Civic Democrats, ODS) indicated that Police President Tomas Tuhy is not related to an SMS message warning about a planned anti-corruption police raid.
Blazek said the version presented by former detective Jiri Komarek and presented in some media was untrue.
In June, Komarek accused Tuhy of a brutal leak of information and said suspects received a warning SMS sent from a phone used by Tuhy’s relatives.
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