Prague, June 28 (CTK) – The Prague High State Attorney’s Office has been dealing with the suspected embezzlement of a part of the high ransom that the state paid last year for two Czech women abducted in Pakistan, the Neovlivni.cz news server wrote on Tuesday.
Prague High State Attorney Lenka Bradacova confirmed to the server that the suspicion was reported to her office.
Hana Humpalova and Antonie Chrastecka, then aged 24, were abducted by unknown gunmen in southwestern Pakistan in March 2013 when they were travelling by bus from Iran to India. Both Czech women were released in March 2015.
In February, the weekly Respekt wrote that the Czech Republic paid six million dollars for their release. The state has never officially confirmed that it paid a ransom.
The server writes that the Czech secret services have been dealing with the suspected fraud for three months.
In March, former civilian intelligence chief Karel Randak said a part of the ransom might have been embezzled.
A source from the security forces told the server that the investigation of the case followed two versions. According to one version, the state decided to pay eight million dollars, but the kidnappers received only six million. According to the other version, the state planned to give them six million, but the kidnappers got only two million dollars.
The server writes that the case may be related to the present dispute about a police shake-up. The payment of the ransom was administered by the UZSI civilian intelligence that is under the jurisdiction of Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Social Democrats, CSSD) and its spies are thus suspected of the fraud, it writes.
The head of the civilian intelligence, Jiri Sasek, has denied the news broken by the server.
“The Office for Foreign Relations and Information absolutely rejects all the information relating to our intelligence service, dealing with the case of the women kidnapped in Pakistan and published by the Czech media,” the press release said.
This is a continuation of the campaign that is to discredit the service and whole security system, it added.
The UZSI has tense relations with the military intelligence, which comes under Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO), Neovlivni.cz writes.
The UZSI has not officially commented on the suspicion. Unofficially, UZSI officials dismissed the suspicion and said it was an intelligence game of another Czech secret service, the server writes.
