Mailbox
This week's topics: Appeal on Putin to pardon Czech prisoner. Internet for Schools project. Fischer Air gets contract with Allianz. Listeners quoted: Gina Gordon, Bridget Cain, Jack Haines.
We would like to thank one person in particular, a long-time listener of Radio Prague, Mr William Cookson. Your letter was truly heart-warming and appreciated. Thank You.
But let's get on to other questions and comments we also appreciate. Gina Gordon from Texas, USA, writes:
"I noticed a headline in one of your main newspapers that your government has asked the Russians to release a Czech prisoner. What has he/she done? Is this case linked to the communist past?"
No, it is not. The former Czech president Vaclav Havel and the Czech Foreign Ministry have requested that Russian President Vladimir Putin pardon a Czech citizen, who was sentenced to prison in Russia for smuggling hashish. Mr Pavlicek was detained at Moscow airport on April 25, after a trip to the Indian capital of New Delhi. He had planned to continue to Prague. However, during customs clearance, customs officers found 0.95g of hashish in his luggage. Mr Pavlicek apparently told the authorities he had received the drug from a holy man in India and decided to keep it as a souvenir. He added he had forgotten it was in his backpack. The thirty-six year old Czech was sentenced to 19 months in prison and ordered to undergo an anti-drug treatment programme - all of this for smuggling less than one gramme of the drug.
Of course, it is wrong to smuggle any amount of a drug but according to the Foreign Ministry, this case would be qualified as a misdemeanour in the Czech Republic and that is why the Czech authorities have asked for Mr Pavlicek to be pardoned or allow him to serve the sentence in the Czech Republic. In Russia, the sentences for smuggling drugs range from three to seven years in prison. So far, there has been no news as to whether Mr Pavlicek will be pardoned or transferred to a Czech prison.
But this is actually not the only drug-smuggling story that's made headlines in the past week. The authorities in Thailand are to decide whether to allow two Czech men serving long prison sentences in Bangkok for smuggling heroin to serve the rest of their sentences in a Czech prison. Twenty-seven year old Emil Novotny was sentenced to 42 years in prison, out of which he has served eight years so far. Under the terms of a newly-signed Czech-Thai treaty on prison exchanges, Mr Novotny would spend another 34 years behind bars, leaving prison in his early sixties. The other Czech national, Radek Hanykovisc, was sentenced to 25 years. The maximum sentence for drug offences under Czech law is fifteen years.
Moving on to a lighter topic now, Bridget Cain is a school teacher who listens to us in Portugal. She writes:
"I think it is a good idea to provide schools with the internet. So what is the problem with that lovely Internet for Schools programme that your government has launched?"
I think you are referring to a lawsuit recently filed by the Education Ministry against unknown offenders, following a report from the Supreme Audit Office criticising the internet programme. According to the office, known here as the NKU, contracts signed between the ministry and Internet providers were disadvantageous.
According to the CTK news agency, the general contractor for the Internet project, AutoCont OnLine, has asked its lawyers to review the NKU report, saying it lacked objectivity. The company's management is of the opinion that the materials from the Education Ministry supplied to the NKU for its report were intentionally slanted. The ministry denies the charges. The Czech government had reserved seven billion Czech crowns for the project. The NKU reached the conclusion that the Education Ministry had uneconomically made use of at least 884 million crowns, broken the law on budgetary guidelines, and signed contracts putting the state at a disadvantage. In addition, the government had paid for incomplete work, and had not even checked to make sure that the terms of the contracts had been met.
Jack Hanes from New Zealand asks:
"Is the Fischer travel agency out of trouble now? My wife and I flew with Fischer Air to Croatia and back from Prague and had a wonderful experience. It would be a shame if such a wonderful company with its pleasant staff had to shut down."
Well, it really looks like the agency is above water now. Until Wednesday morning, it was still uncertain whether Fischer Air's planes would be able to get off the ground next month because its insurance contract was expiring at the end of August. But the insurance company Allianz renewed the insurance.
Just for those of you who have not heard about the problem. The Fischer companies, dealing with travel and tourism, were in financial trouble at the beginning of the month and were almost forced to close down had it not been for the Atlantik company, which agreed to pay Fischer's debts to all three major creditors, namely Komercni banka, Czech Airlines and the Czech Airport Authority. The latter is reported to have received its share on Tuesday, while Komercni banka and Czech Airlines were already repaid their money last week.
Atlantik also came to the rescue regarding insurance and made an offer to pay the debt to Allianz, on the condition that it renewed the contract.
