Altner postpones giving evidence in Gripen investigation

Zdenek Altner, the lawyer who is suing the Social Democrats for over 19 billion crowns in unpaid fees, has excused himself from giving evidence in a scheduled hearing as part of an investigation into corruption and bribery allegations surrounding the Czech government's agreement to buy Swedish Gripen fighter jets five years ago. Mr Altner declined to attend the hearing because he wanted a legal representative present during questioning and could not engage one in time. He now has to arrange a hearing on an alternative date. The lawyer says it is nonsensical that he should be implicated in the matter and thinks the police only want to question him because - as the then governing Social Democrats' lawyer - he had had some dealings with officials who are now being investigated in connection with the Gripen case.