Former minister’s assistant released from prison

Barbora Snopková, assistant to former finance minister Ivo Svoboda, has been released from prison on parole. Mrs Snopková and Mr Svoboda were sentenced to five years in prison in 2005 after being convicted of having unlawfully transferred 6.5 million crowns (around 400 000 US dollars) to their own private company from the now bankrupt baby carriage manufacturer Liberta, while on the company’s board between 1996 and 1998. Mr Svoboda is the first member of a post-Communist Czech government to be handed down a prison sentence. The release of Mrs Snopková was proposed by the head of Prague’s Ruzyně prison where she served her sentence.