Court action taken over Klaus apartment

The Czech president Václav Klaus, along with his wife Livia are to face to a court proceeding over an apartment the couple owns in Prague’s Libeň district. The action has been launched by a housing co-op in Prague 8, which believes that the Klaus’ did not obtain the apartment fairly. The co-op is seeking the return of the apartment, which the presidential couple obtained back in 1998, before Mr Klaus became president. The court action centres on the transfer of rights to the flat from its previous owner Ivan Přikryl – a close colleague of Social Democrat leader Jiří Paroubek - to the Klaus couple. Mr Přikryl’s wife has since complained that she was a co-owner of the flat and that her husband’s deal with the Klaus couple was done without her knowledge. The court action undertaken by the co-op along with Přikryl’s wife is seeking to nullify the ten-year-old ownership agreement between the Czech president and Ivan Přikryl.