Liberec, North Bohemia, June 10 (CTK) – The Czech anti-corruption police have accused Robert Dusek, member of the senior government Social Democrat (CSSD) leadership, of so far unspecified crime, Dusek confirmed to CTK yesterday.
According to CTK information, the accusation concerns a suspected fraud in connection with drawing of European subsidies for the construction of thermal spa in Chrastava, north Bohemia.
The Independent Investigation Centre (CNI) and the Regional Anti-Corruption Centre (KPKP) informed CTK about the case yesterday.
Dusek, former MEP and a long-term head of the CSSD organisation in the Liberec Region, refused to specify his accusations, while the CNI and KPKP sources spoke of crimes connected with public procurement and European subsidies.
“I am convinced that this is misunderstanding. I consider it a standard part of the political fight in the Liberec Region,” Dusek told CTK.
Jaroslav Ibehej, spokesman for the Squad for Uncovering Corruption and Financial Crime, also refused to comment on Dusek’s accusations.
“We do not comment on particular persons,” he said.
The anti-corruption police have been investigating the case of the Chrastava spa for over a year.
“Seven people were originally accused in the case. The prosecution of some of them has been extended. Another four people are newly prosecuted. This is 11 people in total,” Radim Kadlcek, from the Regional State Attorney’s Office in Liberec, told CTK yesterday.
One of the accused is former owner of the spa, Jan Imlauf.
The CNI and KPKP report that another accused is Martin Sepp, former CSSD regional council in charge of transport. Some businessmen in the construction field in Liberec are allegedly also among the accused.
“I feel innocent. I consider it [the accusation] unsubstantiated,” Sepp told CNI.
The thermal spa in Chrastava was opened in December 2012 after the first phase of the project for 100 million crowns was finished. The whole complex was to cost another 120 million crowns. However, it has never been completed.
The project was complicated by a dispute about the spa company that ended up in insolvency proceedings eventually.
The spa went bankrupt in November 2013. Its former owner owes almost 229 million crowns to various creditors. The biggest is the Regional Council of the Northeast Cohesion Region that provided a subsidy for the spa construction and now it demands more than 121 million crowns.
($1=24.328 crowns)
