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Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek told Parliament on Wednesday he had proof that last year’s presidential elections were manipulated by people close to the opposition Social Democrats. The prime minister said that the people behind the manipulation were the former head of the intelligence service Karel Randák and Petr Dimun, who is currently head of PR in the Social Democratic Party. Mr. Topolánek said he was prepared to submit the evidence at a closed session of the lower house.

President Vaclav Klaus won a second term in office in last year’s presidential elections, beating challenger Jan Švejnar, a liberal economist backed by the Social Democrats and the Greens. At the time, the coalition and opposition accused each other of arm-twisting and underhand practices. Several deputies and senators received anonymous threats in the mail and a Social Democrat MP was expelled from his deputies’ group for voting with the other side. President Klaus on Wednesday refused to comment on the prime minister’s remarks.

During talks in Berlin on Wednesday, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg stressed the importance of the EU’s Eastern Partnership Programme to be launched in May. Addressing members of the Bundestag’s Foreign Relations Committee Mr. Schwarzenberg said it was important that the EU establish a working relationship with the former Soviet Republics in order to motivate them on the road to democracy. The Eastern Partnership Programme is a forum intended to facilitate visa agreements, free trade deals and strategic partnership agreements with a number of countries from Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus. It does not imply future membership of the European Union. The partnership scheme will include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine and Belarus.

The Czech Republic is to sell some of its redundant carbon credits to Japan in a deal amounting to ten billion crowns. Czech Environment Minister Martin Bursík who was in Tokyo to arrange the sale, said the Czech Republic had received favourable conditions and the deal would be signed in Prague on March 30th. The proceeds from the sale will go to the State Fund for the Environment and will be used to support environment-friendly heating methods and co-finance the insulation of houses. The Czech Republic has redundant carbon credits thanks to a steep reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The country pledged to reduce emissions by 8 percent but has managed to effect a 25 percent cut since 1990.

Police have filed charges against a judge who was secretly filmed by reporters while accepting a bribe. Judge Pavel Nagy has been accused of bribery, abuse of power and fraud for which he could be sentenced up to twelve years in prison. A team of investigative reporters set out to trap him after one of his clients complained that he had asked for money in return for a verdict in her favour. Reporters discovered that the judge was deep in debt.