Court releases defendant in Rath case from custody

The Prague Regional Court has released Kateřina Pancová from custody. The former director of a hospital in Kladno is standing trial for corruption alongside MP David Rath, who was health minister in the mid 2000s, and 10 other people. The court refused to release another defendant, former MP Petr Kott, who is Ms. Pancová’s boyfriend. The trial concerns bribe-taking and the manipulation of tenders in the construction and health care sectors in the Central Bohemia Region, of which Mr. Rath was governor.