Lawyer lodges complaint against Social Democrat leader

Lawyer Zdenek Altner who is suing the Social Democrats for nearly 19 billion crowns or roughly 890 million dollars, has lodged a complaint against the Social Democrat chairman Jiri Paroubek and other senior party figures. Mr Altner's assistant Zdenka Vackova said on Tuesday that Mr Altner will disclose details of the complaint on Thursday. The lawyer claims he is owed 93 million crowns or 4.3 million US dollars from the Social Democrats for services he gave them in a legal dispute over the ownership of the party's headquarters in the 1990s and that this has now risen to 19 billion crowns due to fines and late-payment penalties. The Social Democrat leadership says Altner's claims are exaggerated and unsubstantiated and would not stand up in court.