Prague, July 13 (CTK) – The Czech lower house commission investigating information leaks from police files will meet every Tuesday and it will invite representatives of police and the Supreme State Attorney’s Office to its next meeting, its chairman, MP Martin Plisek (TOP 09), told CTK on Thursday.
The commission elected Jiri Stetina (Dawn) its deputy head at the first meeting on Thursday, Plisek added.
Though the impulse to establish the commission was a scandal concerning former deputy PM and finance minister Andrej Babis, leader of the government ANO movement, its members will primarily focus on information leaks from investigation files in general.
“The commission members want to deal with systemic issues first, logically… Then we can proceed to particular cases and their protagonists,” Plisek said.
Commission member Radek Vondracek (ANO) pointed out that the establishment of the commission seemed to be just a political step aimed at Babis.
“I must appreciate that my colleagues have heard my arguments and that, I hope, we will really deal with long-term problems of leaking information from open case files by the law enforcement bodies,” he told CTK.
The commission members are to propose the persons to summon now. Plisek said the commission should question the interior and justice ministers, Milan Chovanec (Social Democrats, CSSD) and Robert Pelikan (ANO), respectively, as well as Babis and journalist Marek Pribil.
The commission set up on the initiative of the senior government CSSD is to check possible illegal conduct in connection with unauthorised gaining of files of law enforcement 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 said he would propose to the Chamber of Deputies that the deadline be prolonged until September 12.
The leak from an open police file was talked about in connection with an audio recording featuring Babis and Pribil 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.
