At a court hearing today, Vesecka dismissed the previous testimony by Zlatuse Andelova, the regional state attorney in Ostrava, north Moravia, whose subordinate supervised Cunek's investigation, that Kucera had asked her to protract the case. At the beginning of 2007 Cunek, chairman of the junior ruling Christian Democrats Cunek planning reorganisation, personnel changes in his ministry ...
Cunek returns to govt after settling dispute with ForMin - PM ... (KDU-CSL), was accused of accepting a bribe.
The supervision of the case's investigation fell to north Moravian district state attorney Radim Obst. According to some information, Obst was considering bringing criminal charges against Cunek. In mid-2007, however Vesecka surprisingly took the case away from Obst and transferred it to Arif Salichov, a district attorney in Jihlava, south Moravia, who subsequently halted the prosecution, citing procedural mistakes and untrustworthiness of the crown witness. Later it turned out that before the case was taken away from north Moravia, Kucera and former Justice Minister and then government's aide Pavel Nemec had three "unusual" meetings with Andelova. The last of the meetings, held in the spring, was also attended by Vesecka. Andelova recently indicated that Kucera had exerted pressure on her in favour of Cunek. Observers say Kucera might have acted on the initiative of the government that might have feared destabilisation if criminal charges were brought against Cunek. Vesecka told the court today that Andelova had no means to drag out Cunek's investigation. Vesecka and Nemec also dismissed Andelova's allegation that at last controversial meeting last spring Kucera said that in Cunek's case judiciary must yield to political interests. Nemec said the last meeting, that also involved Vesecka, was but a "pub gabble." Vesecka and Nemec said the meetings were motivated by friendly relations between the participants. They were neither unusual nor secret. They were not motivated by Cunek's case. The case was one of many topics the meeting touched upon, Vesecka and Nemec told the court. Today's testimonies were heard within a court dispute in which Vesecka and other senior judicial officials sue Marie Benesova, shadow justice minister for the opposition Social Democrats (CSSD), for calling their practices mafia-like. Another witness today, south Bohemian state attorney Petr Dusek, said that Vesecka's deputy Karel Cernovsky and Deputy High Attorney in Prague Libor Grygarek had met him in late May or early June 2007 to discuss a possible transfer of Cunek's case's supervision to south Bohemia. Dusek said the transfer was to be made in compliance with Cunek defence counsel's complaint about the bias of the north Moravian attorney. Dusek said such steps are not usual. First, the court decides on the bias complaint and only afterwards a new district is looked for to transfer the case to, Dusek pointed out. He said Grygarek had shared his opinion that the case should be completed in Moravia.
(Ceske Noviny)
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