Cabinet approves plan to curtail parliamentary immunity

The cabinet on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill that should radically limit the immunity of Czech MPs and senators if it is approved. If passed by parliament, the bill will only protect MPs from lawsuits taken against them for speeches they make in parliament. It will not protect them from criminal investigations. The bill received the support of all the coalition parties, including the Christian Democrats whose leader Jiri Cunek was recently stripped of his parliamentary immunity so that he could be investigated by police on corruption charges. Critics of the proposal say that it has not been accompanied by the necessary legislative amendments to the Penal Code or the parliamentary rules of procedure.