Prague, July 19 (CTK) – Alena Vitaskova, chairwoman of the Czech Energy Regulatory Office (ERU), will run in the autumn Senate elections as unaffiliated for the Dawn-National Coalition party, she said at its press conference in the lower house yesterday.
Vitaskova will run in the Ostrava-City ward.
If she were elected, she would leave the post of ERU head.
In February, the Regional Court sentenced Vitaskova to 8.5 years in prison for the ERU’s irregular granting of licences to two solar power plants in north Bohemia. Vitaskova denies the charges. The verdict has not taken effect yet as she appealed it.
Vitaskova said yesterday she did not care for a senator’s immunity since she had done nothing unlawful.
“In no case I will ask the Senate not to release me for prosecution,” she said.
She would proceed in accordance with law as the ERU chairwoman if she were elected, which means she would end at the ERU helm.
Under the energy law, the post of the ERU head cannot be combined with the posts of a deputy, a senator, a judge, a state attorney, a government member or any other senior post in public administration and political party membership.
Vitaskova also said she did not plan to enter a political party.
“Chairwoman Alena Vitaskova belongs to the Senate and not to jail,” Dawn chairman Miroslav Lidinsky said.
Dawn respects the presumption of innocence, he added.
hol/dr/rtj
