Another Civic Democrat suspected of lobbying for mob

Telephone conversations recorded by the police in 2000 suggest that Ivan Langer, then vice-chairman of the Chamber of Deputies and the current interior minister, collaborated with organized crime, the daily Mladá Fronta Dnes reported on Saturday. Mr Langer is another senior politician of the ruling Civic Democrats, after Vlastimil Tlustý, suspected of lobbying for the unofficial head of Czech organized crime František Mrázek. Both politicians have denied that they would have knowingly collaborated with the mob. Civic Democratic leadership is to meet on Monday to deal with the situation in the party. The Civic Democrats have recently been hit with a scandal involving one of their MPs, Jan Morava, who was exposed as ready to allegedly blackmail Mr Tlustý with staged photos.