Prague, Sept 29 (CTK) – The Prague High Court cancelled the acquittal of former deputy labour and social affairs minister Vladimir Siska and court expert Vladimir Smejkal, returning the case of a public commission for IBM worth one billion crowns for retrial, CTK has found out from the judicial database.
The Municipal Court in Prague ruled in February that the two men had not committed any crime.
The appeals court decided in a close hearing. The High Court cancelled the verdict in mid-September, complying with the state attorney who appealed the acquittal instantly.
Siska and Smejkal plead not-guilty.
According to the indictment, Siska wanted to ensure for the IBM illegally a commission for the delivery of a system checking doctors and preventing the abuse of welfare payment.
Smejkal had allegedly an untrue expert report drafted for the ministry under which no one but IBM could provide the demanded service.
The tender was cancelled by the anti-monopoly office after a complaint against the ministerial decision was filed by the software firm SAS Institute.
The state attorney says Siska is guilty of abuse of power and attempted violation of the rules of economic competition.
He says Smejkal is guilty of attempted false testimony and untrue expert report.
If convicted, Siska may be given a 12-year prison term, Smejkal a 10-year term.
In February, the Prague Municipal Court said no evidence corroborated the state attorney’s conclusions.
It ruled that the state attorney had not proven that at the incriminating time, IBM really was not the only company that was able to provide the product in question for the Czech state.
The judge also said Siska had not been the only man involved in the tender.
Siska, whose criminal cases forced Labour and Social Affairs Minister Jaromir Drabek (TOP 09) to resign in October 2012, is also facing another two charges.
The Prague Municipal Court has twice ruled that he was guilty of blackmailing an agent of the firm OKsystem, but the high court returned the case each time for reappraisal.
Another case is alleged illegal advantage for the firm Fujitsu Technology, for which a six-year prison term was proposed to him.
