Prague, July 12 (CTK) – Deputy Martin Plisek (TOP 09) was elected on Wednesday head of the Czech lower house commission investigating a possible information leak from police files, election commission chairman Martin Kolovratnik (ANO) has told CTK.
MPs preferred Plisek to another candidate, Jiri Stetina (Dawn).
The commission aimed at former deputy PM and finance minister Andrej Babis, leader of the government ANO movement, can start working after its chairman was elected.
The commission set up on the initiative of the senior government Social Democrats (CSSD) is to check possible illegal conduct in connection with unauthorised gaining of files of law enforcing bodies. It is also to focus on whether these data were abused to influence political rivals or destabilise the democratic law-abiding state.
The commission is to present its results to the Chamber of Deputies by the end of August.
Plisek told CTK that he would like the Chamber of Deputies to prolong the deadline by about a week. Consequently, its investigation results would be available at the lower houses’s session on September.
This has been the second election of the commission’s head. The same candidates were running in the previous election, but none of them received sufficient support.
Along with Plisek and Stetina, the commission includes Lukas Pleticha (CSSD), Radek Vondracek (ANO), Petr Kudela representing the junior government Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) as well as Josef Zahradnicek from the opposition Communists (KSCM) and Marek Benda sent by the opposition right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS).
The leak from an open police file was talked about in connection with an audio recording featuring Babis and a journalist from a daily he owned.
Babis has repeatedly rejected the assertions that he probably got such a document from the journalist.
The police are checking the recordings, which appeared on an anonymous Twitter account. Its name, Julius Suman, refers to former communist secret police (StB) officer who allegedly won Babis over for cooperation under the previous regime, which both deny.
In the recordings, Babis speaks about government members, including Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (CSSD), using dirty words and discusses the releasing of compromising materials with the journalist.
Billionaire businessman Babis, who was dismissed from the coalition cabinet in May due to his dubious business activities, says the establishment of the commission is a continuation of a campaign led against him.
His ANO remains the far most popular party and favourite of the autumn general election, according to opinion polls.
