Prague, Oct 21 (CTK) – The Czech police inspection body (GIBS), recently suspected of covering up corrupt behaviour of a high-ranking police officer, has also been tormented by internal clashes between inspectors who do not hesitate to bug each other and plant agents provocateurs, Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes Wednesday.
In the Olomouc Region, north Moravia, the regional GIBS branch seems to have turned a blind eye to suspicious practices of the police. The inspectors who wanted to investigate the cases were forced to leave, MfD writes, recalling that Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has summoned GIBS director Ivan Bilek over the scandal.
In Ostrava, elsewhere in north Moravia, Bilek faces a criminal complaint for having shadowed and bugged Jan Michel, head of the Ostrava GIBS branch. Michel also complains of the GIBS management having tested him through a false journalist, the daily writes.
Michel failed the “integrity test” because he had a lunch paid for himself by what he believed was a journalist, it adds.
Similar cases occurred in the GIBS in the past. Most often they ended by the departure of the shadowed inspectors, the paper writes.
Michel told MfD that he wants to defend himself actively, but he would not comment on his plan in detail as it would go counter to the GIBS internal directives.
The GIBS refused to comment on Michel’s case, but Michel’s version has been confirmed by four separate sources.
A month ago, Michel met a “journalist” who addressed him in connection with a newspaper article. Their joint lunch in a pub was no mistake of Michel, who, in addition, made an official report on it.
However, as Michel was in a hurry due to his busy schedule, “the journalist” offered to pay the lunch for him. Michel accepted the offer because he had an appointment, urgently had to leave the pub but no waiter could be seen around at the moment.
“Michel said he would pay for a joint lunch next time. It was nothing more than human decency on his part,” a source close to the GIBS is quoted as saying.
However, it turned out that the “journalist” was a fellow GIBS inspector who was testing Michel for corruption. He reported their meeting as a failure of Michel who allowed himself to be “corrupted” by lunch, MfD writes.
By ordering the test, the GIBS management risked an unlawful action. The law only allows for tests of reliability to be carried out for a reason approved beforehand, the paper says.
In other words, the agent, tasked to test Michel for “leaking information from the GIBS,” could hardly change his task and “catch” Michel “red-handed” accepting an invitation for lunch, the daily says.
Michel’s case is one in the series of similar practices being applied by the GIBS. By no means is he the first GIBS officer to be bugged, the paper writes.
Probably the best known other case involves the Meraki shadowing programme, which some inspectors uncovered in their new cell phones, given to them by the GIBS management, last December. No one has ever found out how the programme was installed in the phones, MfD writes.
The GIBS, like intelligence services, never comments on its internal operation, its spokeswoman Radka Sandorova told MfD.
Bilek survived a number of scandals in his post of GIBS director, but the latest one, which burst out in Olomouc last week, is probably the biggest of them, the paper continues.
Olomouc GIBS branch head Tomas Ulicny is suspected of covering up controversial activities of the regional police deputy head Karel Kadlec.
Ulicny and Kadlec have known each other well. The regional GIBS branch knew about and repeatedly investigated Kadlec’s links to controversial businessman Ivan Kysely, but the investigations were always inconclusive, MfD writes.
