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11/12/2003
The country's chief state prosecutor Marie Benesova has ruled that former communist functionaries Milous Jakes and Jozef Lenart will no longer be tried for their roles during the Soviet-led invasion of 1968. Both men had been tried on charges of treason for allegedly trying to legalise the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw pact troops on August 21st, 1968. Mrs Benesova's decision upholds an appeals court ruling from June that found neither man guilty as charged. Had she questioned the court's decision the Supreme Court would have been petitioned and the trials could have continued.
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11/12/2003
Spokeswoman Anna Veverkova has revealed that the Czech cabinet has swept aside an opposition proposal calling for compensation for victims of the
Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The proposal, put forward by the opposition Civic Democrats, will still, however, be debated in parliament. The Civic Democrats would like to see those who suffered under the occupation, which effectively lasted from 1968 till 1991, receive remuneration as high as millions of crowns, especially in cases where a family member was wounded, raped, or killed. To this day the complete number of victims who suffered or were killed under the occupation remains unknown.
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11/12/2003
The Czech cabinet has unanimously approved a defence ministry plan outlining key reforms that will see the army streamlined to just 30, 000 professional soldiers, while compulsory military service will be abolished by the end of 2004. With the Czech Republic a member of NATO the army will also focus on several specialisations in the future, including the fight against weapons of mass destruction, the military health care sector, and passive surveillance. In other areas the Czech military will have to rely on support from allied forces. The reforms also propose that in the near future the army will abandon unneeded bases in certain Czech towns, a move that has been criticised by local municipal councils. But, the government has previously agreed that it will compensate those towns from a total sum of 350 million crowns.
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11/12/2003
After a meeting in Brno on Tuesday with the ombudsman, Otakar Motejl, President Vaclav Klaus said he still doubted the need for an official defender of citizens' rights. Mr Motejl requested a meeting with Mr Klaus last month, after the president blasted the Office of the Ombudsman, describing it as a cushy job for retired politicians. Otakar Motejl was made the Czech Republic's first ombudsman in December 2000.
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11/12/2003
Cabinet spokeswoman Anna Veverkova has revealed that the government has approved financial assistance of 3.4 billion crowns to help district officials cover heavy debts by district hospitals. Regional governors will receive 2.7 billion crowns by the end of the year, while the remaining 700 million will arrive in 2004. The financial boost should help solve the current financial crisis in the health-care sector. Presently, the government is seeking ways to ensure that similar problems are not repeated in the future: a general plan for health-care reform should be submitted to the cabinet by Health Minister Marie Souckova, by the end of January.
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11/12/2003
A Czech court has given two Czech men and one Swedish national sentences ranging from several months to several years in prison for the production and distribution of child pornography. 43-year-old Pavel Rohel, the head of a modelling agency in the town of Nachod in east Bohemia, received three years in prison, while his 35-year-old employee Jaroslav Hampl received ten months. The Swedish citizen, John Axel Victorin received the highest sentence of three-and-a-half years. The three were found guilty of corrupting the morals of children and youth and sexually abusing models, though Mr Victorin denied any wrong-doing. All three men have appealed the verdict.
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11/10/2003
Police in Prague have launched an investigation after a monument to victims of the Communist era was damaged in an explosion. No-one was injured in the blast, which is believed to have occurred early on Sunday morning. Police are now examining traces of the explosive. The monument, which uses life-sized human figures to represent Communist-era political prisoners, has already been vandalised once before: in August vandals covered the statues with adhesive tape spelling out abusive slogans.
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11/10/2003
Meanwhile police in the northern town of Trutnov say the graves of 15 Jewish girls killed by the Nazis have been desecrated. Fifteen tombstones were overturned and damaged in the attack. Police are treating the incident as racially-motivated. The head of the Prague Jewish Community said the attack could be connected with the 65th anniversary of "Kristalnacht", when thousands of Jewish shops and synagogues across Germany were burned and looted by the Nazis. He said the number of attacks against Jewish monuments rose each November.
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11/10/2003
Newspaper reports say Miroslav Kalousek, the newly-elected leader of the junior coalition Christian Democrats, will not become a minister in the centre-left government. Mr Kalousek defeated Cyril Svoboda, the foreign minister, in Saturday's leadership contest. He told Mlada Fronta Dnes newspaper that he wanted to concentrate on leading the party to success in the 2006 parliamentary elections. Mr Svoboda will remain in his cabinet post, and will serve as one of the party's deputy chairmen.
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11/10/2003
A bus driver being prosecuted over an accident in which 19 people were killed has failed to appear in court on the first day of his trial. Pavel Krbec, charged with causing the crash and also falsifying his driving licence, said he was too ill to attend proceedings. Prosecutors say Mr Krbec was driving too fast for the conditions at the time of the crash, and was not paying due attention to the road. He is also accused of falsifying his bus driver's licence, which had expired. He faces 10 years in prison if found guilty. Mr Krbec himself has filed charges against the father of one of the victims, who recently launched an Internet site describing him as a murderer.
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