Prague, July 10 (CTK) – New Justice Minister Jan Knezinek, who replaced Tatana Mala (ANO) on Tuesday, has nothing against being in the government with a criminally prosecuted prime minister, he told journalists on Tuesday after President Milos Zeman appointed him to the post.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO), who has proposed Knezinek to the post, is facing a criminal prosecution over an EU subsidy fraud.
“If I minded this I would certainly not be standing here,” Knezinek said.
“In this case, I rely on law-enforcement bodies, on the independent state attorney’s office and on independent courts. Let us leave the decision up to them,” he added.
Knezinek listed his priorities. The short-term ones include the completion of the bills now debated in the Chamber of Deputies.
“There are quite a lot of them,” Knezinek said, citing as the examples the new law on court experts and the law on interpreters.
When it comes to long-term priorities, he said he planned to fulfil the government manifesto.
“The biggest task, the task for the whole election term for the Justice Ministry, is to work on new procedural rules or on the new code of civil procedures, the new rules of criminal procedures so that the things on which the work has lasted for very long were pushed forward,” he added.
Knezinek stressed that he had been named as a full-fledged government member.
Mala was forced to resign over a plagiarism scandal with her two theses after two weeks in office.
Babis will inaugurate Knezinek on Wednesday morning. On the same day, the Chamber of Deputies will vote on confidence in the new minority government, comprised of ANO and the Social Democrats and backed by the Communists.
