Constitutional Court head Rychetsky tightlipped on president’s decision to withhold award

The President of the Constitutional Court Pavel Rychetský has said he will not comment on President Miloš Zeman’s decision not to award him the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk as previously announced.

Zeman's spokesman Jiří Ovčáček said on Wednesday that the Constitutional Court had damaged the Czech Republic by invalidating parts of the election law in the middle of an election campaign.

Rychetský, who presides over the court, was one of eleven judges who voted to invalidate parts of the law that they said discriminated smaller parties.

Judge Rychetský, a respected lawyer and an old friend of the president, was on the list of persons to have received high state distinctions on October 28, last year. However the award ceremony was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.