Prague, Dec 7 (CTK) – A state attorney’s office should examine whether the compromising video recording with outgoing Czech Presidential Office’s Protocol Department head Jindrich Forejt was to be used for blackmailing, Interior Minister Milan Chovanec told reporters in the lower house yesterday.
The National Security Office (NBU) should also deal with the video recording because of Forejt’s security vetting, said Chovanec (senior government Social Democrats, CSSD).
Forejt, 39, resigned from the post on Tuesday for personal and health reasons.
Former president Vaclav Klaus resolutely condemned what he called the forced departure of Forejt from the post, in a statement released to CTK by Petr Macinka, from the Vaclav Klaus Institute.
“I resolutely condemn the forced departure of Jindrich Forejt and his discrediting from the professional and human viewpoint,” Klaus said.
Klaus called Forejt, who also headed the protocol department under his presidency, one of his closest collaborators.
Sources well acquainted with the Presidential Office point to tense relation between Forejt and other officials, including President Milos Zeman’s chief adviser Martin Nejedly and Presidential Office head Vratislav Mynar. However, Zeman always stood up by Forejt.
The Hlidaci pes server published a few photos from the video recording, but it refused to release the whole recording.
“If the recording was made for the purpose of blackmailing Mr Forejt or possibly people from his surrounding or for some criminal activities, it should be undoubtedly investigated,” Chovanec said.
The video recording was made under peculiar circumstances and it is also strange that it was offered to several media outlets, Chovanec said.
“I do not support these (former communist secret police) StB-like methods. On the other hand, there might be information in the recording that is serious, for instance, for granting or suspending a security vetting of the respective man, so I suppose that the NBU will take some steps in this case,” he said.
Chovanec refused to presume the results of the NBU’s investigation.
Chovanec also appreciated Forejt’s work at the Presidential Office, though he had raised some objections to it recently.
Forejt, who will leave the post of protocol head at the end of the year, is one of Zeman’s close collaborators. He came under criticism of late because of several mistakes he did in his post.
Some media wrote on Monday that Forejt allegedly appeared in a compromising video recording. It has not been possible to verify the authenticity of the material.
