Prague, April 14 (CTK) – Rostislav Pilc, head of the military department of the Czech Presidential Office, resigned yesterday, and he will be succeeded by Brigadier General Jan Kase, Pilc’s lawyer Daniel Volak and President Milos Zeman’s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek have told journalists.
Volak said Pilc still considered the decision by the National Security Office (NBU) to withdraw his security clearance illegal, but did not want to prolong the state in which the president was “exposed to a permanent public and media pressure over the affair.”
Pilc lost his security clearance at the end of last November.
He lodged a complaint about the decision, but it was rejected.
Last week, he turned to a court over the affair.
The media has speculated that Pilc was harmed by the scandal involving the head of former prime minister Petr Necas, Jana Nagyova (now Necasova), in which he testified against his former fellow workers from the Military Intelligence (VZ).
The VZ report on Pilc allegedly pointed to Pilc’s ties to Russia.
President Milos Zeman then said Pilc would have to end in the post because he needed the security clearance.
However, Zeman said later he would first study all the documents and after it, he would decide on Pilc.
Zeman appointed Brigadier General Jan Kase, 56, new head of the military department of the Presidential Office, Ovcacek has said.
Kase headed the Agency of Communication and Information Systems.
“On April 14, Zeman accepted Pilc’s resignation and appointed Brigadier General Jan Kase to succeed him,” Ovcacek said.
Kase is an expert in IT and military communications.
In the 1980s, he studied at the Military Academy in Brno.
He worked at the general staff between 1985 and 2003.
Between June 2007 and December 2009, he was head of the Czech communication troops and then he headed the NATO liaison office in Belgrade.
Five years ago, he returned to the Defence Ministry. At first, he was director of the communications and IT systems and from 2013 on he headed the Agency of Communication and Information Systems.
He was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in June 2009.
pv/dr/kva
