Prague, June 19 (CTK) – The Czech anti-mafia police squad (UOOZ) is being liquidated because of its investigation of leaks from police files, UOOZ outgoing chief Robert Slachta told the issue of weekly Respekt that will be out on Monday.
However, Slachta has no evidence to prove his statement, Respekt writes.
Slachta resigned as UOOZ head in protest against the planned police reform within which the UOOZ would merge with the anti-corruption police squad.
Deputy Police President Zdenek Laube, who worked out the reform, dismissed this view.
Laube told Respekt that he has been preparing the reform since 2015. He said the Police Presidium decided to create the reform in a small circle of experts.
Slachta said the police reform was kept secret from both police officers and state attorneys and it is done in a very hasty manner. “The two squads are to merge already in two weeks,” he said.
He said the restructuring allegedly began one day after the operation Gaborik was launched.
Three police officials were accused of abuse of power and bribe taking in relation to leaks of information from criminal proceedings and security databases in May. According to media, the accused are former policeman Igor Gaborik, anti-corruption detective Radek Holub and former customs officer Pavel Sima.
“It is a big case, but it will take the police several months to reveal what the documents and wiretappings really show and how far it all goes,” Slachta said.
Last year, the UOOZ was entrusted with the investigation, although it was the task of the General Inspection of Security Forces (GIBS) to deal with the case.
Respekt writes that Prague High State Attorney Lenka Bradacova told parliament that the GIBS dealt with 33 suspected information leaks from the anti-corruption police in the last three years, but it failed to prove any of the suspicions and did not even start dealing with more than half of the cases.
The detectives search for the owners of nearly 150 encrypted mobile phones within the Gaborik case, the weekly writes.
The planned merger of the two elite police squads caused a rift between the Social Democrats (CSSD) and the ANO movement. ANO threatened to leave the government if the police reform is signed. Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (CSSD) signed the reform earlier this week, but he promised to postpone the reform’s launch by one month and incorporate in it the comments from state attorneys.
