Prague, Feb 18 (CTK) – Jiri Komarek, former detective of the elite organised crime squad (UOOZ) and one of the main critics of the Czech police reform, has assumed a post at the Financial Authority operating under the Finance Ministry headed by Andrej Babis (ANO), daily Pravo writes Saturday.
Komarek will coordinate the work of the Tax Cobra squad fighting high tax evasion in which the police cooperate with the custom and tax authorities, the paper adds.
During the dispute about the planned police overhaul last year, Komarek accused Police President Tomas Tuhy, who pushed it through, of “brutal” information leak.
The core of the reform was the merger of the two elite police units, the anti-mafia and anti-corruption squads, into the National Centre against Organised Crime (NCOZ).
UOOZ chief Robert Slachta, one of the biggest critics of the merger, left the police in protest.
Slachta accepted the post of the deputy general director of Customs Authority that also comes under the Finance Ministry, Pravo points out.
The police reform, signed by Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Social Democrat, CSSD), caused a rift between the major government parties, the CSSD and Babis’s ANO movement. Babis sharply criticised the reshuffle and ANO even threatened to leave the coalition cabinet over it, but changed its mind eventually.
The lawmakers’ commission of investigation concluded that the police reform had not not aimed to remove Slachta, restrict the police squads’ activities or prevent the investigation into certain cases, which its opponents claimed.
