Czech Prime Minister’s Aide, Director of Military Intelligence and Other Senior Figures Arrested In Anticorruption Raids
A top aide of Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas has been arrested in a series of anticorruption raids.
The aide, Jana Nagyova, and four politicians with links to Necas’s center-right Civic Democratic Party (ODS) have been detained by a police unit that battles organized crime.
The raids began late on June 12 and were continuing the next day.
The head of the anticorruption unit and two prosecutors also have visited Necas.
But officials didn’t disclose the purpose of that meeting.
The special police unit also was sent to the Czech Defense Ministry, Prague’s city hall, and the offices and villas of two influential businessmen who have links to politicians.
President Milos Zeman plans to meet on June 14 with the prime minister, the head of the national police, and leaders of the opposition center-left Social Democrats to discuss the developments.
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This is a major story here; the raids weren’t just confined to politicians, but also to businessmen and the Ministry of Defense. The scale of the corruption has come as a genuine shock to many Czechs, who are usually somewhat cynical about such matters.
Tomorrow, President Zeman is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Nečas, leaders of the opposition ČSSD party and the Director of the Czech Federal Police to discuss things; oh, would I love to be a fly on the wall for that meeting. The ČSSD is openly calling for PM Nečas to resign and for the current Parliament to be dissolved and new elections to be held ASAP.
Things are getting interesting in my little part of the world. I’ll keep Lizards updated with what’s going on here as events transpire, but it’s not looking good. This may be the one big scandal that finally causes the Czechs to say “Enough.”
Most worrisome is that the Director of Military Intelligence was among those arrested today, along with the former Director.