News

The Czech government is planning to select members of a supervisory group that will have access to details on live operations conducted by Czech intelligence services, news outlets Aktuálně.cz and Respekt warn. Among the candidates is Václav Pelikán, the head of legislation in President Miloš Zeman’s administration, according to the journalists.

The issue is considered sensitive, because President Zeman is a long-term opponent of the work of the Czech civilian counterintelligence service (BIS) and has tried to gain access to live BIS operations in the past.

The president’s spokesman, Jiří Ovčáček, as well as Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, have not commented on whether Mr. Pelikan was selected following a request from Prague Castle, Aktuálně.cz reported on Friday. According to Interior Minister Jan Hamáček, Mr. Pelikán was picked as a candidate by his own deputy, Jiří Nováček.

Once the government selects the candidates, the Chamber of Deputies will vote to select the final composition of the supervisory group, which will be made up of five people. The supervisory group will have a five year mandate.

The Czech Post (Česká Pošta) will be split into a state-owned company, providing state services through its branch network, and a private segment, which will continue to focus on offering mainly commercial services, Interior Minister Jan Hamáček said on Friday. The split should take place within three years.

The decision was made in the interest of maintaining the competitiveness of Czech Post. The private part of the Czech Post enterprise will not be forced to cover the losses of the state-owned segment.

The exact strategy of how to divide the company will be worked out in cooperation with the Interior Ministry this year, with changes in legislation to follow in 2022.

Czech swimmer Barbora Seemanová won the gold medal in the women’s 200m freestyle at the European Swimming Championships in Budapest on Thursday.

The 21-year-old Czech clinched her first-ever European title with a time of 1:56.27, ahead of Italy’s Federica Pellegrini, improving her own record by 0.69 seconds.

The last Czech swimmer to grab a European Championship gold was Petra Chocová in 2012.

The son of one of the two victims of the 2014 blast in the Vrbětice munitions depot, blamed on Russian agents, has written an open letter to Czech President Miloš Zeman, accusing him of spreading "inaccurate information" about who was responsible for the tragedy.

Mr Zeman said there was no conclusive evidence to accuse Russia and suggested that it could have been caused by bad handling of the munitions. However, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš says the country’s security services have clear evidence that the Russian military intelligence GRU was involved in the deadly explosion.

Lawyer Ondřej Havránek, whose father worked at the munitions depot in Vrbětice, said he was offended by the fact that the head of state was "a source of obviously false and incorrect news.”