Prague/Kiev, May 11 (CTK) – Ludek Vokal, former member of the Czech police organised crime squad who was arrested in Ukraine in April on suspicion of illegal trading in special devices, says it is another Czech, a diplomat from the NATO mission to Kiev, on whom Ukraine’s secret service SBU actually focused.
Vokal, who has been released on a bail, was speaking to the Aktualne.cz server.
He said the SBU was interested in the other Czech, a diplomat, and wanted a commission from the sales of special devices in which Vokal was trading.
In April, the Server Info.cz wrote that a Czech diplomat was arrested along with Vokal but was subsequently released after producing his diplomatic passport.
The Czech Foreign Ministry did not confirm this at the time, saying it had no such information.
Now the ministry spokeswoman Michaela Lagronova told Aktualne.cz that the Ukrainians originally reported the detention of one Czech man.
“Nevertheless, less than two weeks later…our diplomatic mission in Kiev received information that Ukraine also detained a civilian expert working in the NATO liaison office in Kiev, where he was posted by the [Czech] Defence Ministry,” Lagronova said, adding that the man was released and does not face prosecution.
She said he is not a career diplomat and his diplomatic passport was issued for him at the request of the Defence Ministry.
Defence Ministry spokesman Jan Pejsek has told Aktualne.cz that the Czech Republic sent a civilian logistics expert as its voluntary contribution to the NATO office in Kiev. His operation in Ukraine has already ended, he is back home and has been on a leave now,” Pejsek said.
Vokal said the affair harms him very much, though it is not him but “Mr M.P. from the NATO structures” whom the Ukrainian counter-intelligence SBU needed to rid of.
Vokal said the man had supervised all his business deals with Ukrainians and the SBU used him as a mediator to seek a 10-precent commission from the sale of jammers and other devices. The clients insisted on cash payment, Vokal said.
“When our last [business] meeting was to end, the door burst open and they poured a package of dollars on a table. I took one of the banknotes…it was an amateurish fake, ridiculous and deplorable at the same time” Vokal told Aktualne.cz.
Afterwards, a Ukrainian police unit accompanied by SBU agents broke in, he said.
Vokal, who faces corruption and information leak charges in the Czech Republic, has been bailed out but he has to remain in Ukraine where he is suspected of unlawful sales of wiretapping devices and faces up to seven years in prison, if convicted.
