News

Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek was sent back to the drawing board with his draft 2009 budget on Wednesday, when MPs told him to add an additional 700 million crowns (40.1 million USD) to the coffers, to be generated by the sale of government assets. According to Mr Kalousek, the sale of ministry property will not help reduce next year’s predicted budget deficit of 38.1 billion crowns (2.2 billion USD), as funds raised will now be spent in other areas. Mr Kalousek said that he would review the Regional Development and Education Ministries’ budgets in light of the revenue generated by the sales. He added that he expected the government to approve next year’s budget within the next fortnight.

The first arrests have been made under a new law which bans the downloading of child pornography in the Czech Republic, Mladá fronta Dnes reported on Wednesday. Seven people have been arrested and could face up to two years in prison under the new law, the daily added. The law, which came into effect at the end of last year, will be difficult to enforce, experts say, because it is hard to prove that suspects willfully and knowingly downloaded child porn onto their computers.

Ludmila Brožová-Polednová, an eighty-seven year-old woman from Plzeň has been sentenced to six years in prison for her involvement in the capital murder of post-War dissident Milada Horáková. Ms Horáková was an anti-Nazi resistance fighter, parliamentarian and also an anti-communist in the post war period of Czechoslovakia. She was arrested on trumped up charges by the communist authorities in 1949 and executed less than a year later. Ms Brožová-Polednová acted as prosecutor in that trial and was sentenced in 2007 to eight years imprisonment – although this was subsequently overturned on appeal. Now, in what is likely to be the final chapter in this saga, following a ruling that Ms Brožová-Polednová’s alleged crime has not in fact exceeded the statute of limitations, she faced a fresh trial and appeared in court today for the first time ever. Ms Brožová-Polednová has not denied the charges, but denies direct culpability, although she has stated that she is prepared to go to jail if convicted.

Known neo-Nazis continue to serve in elite units within the Czech army, despite the authorities having detailed information about their activities – this according to a report in the daily Mladá fronta Dnes. The paper identified several neo-Nazis within the Czech army back in November, providing evidence of attendance at neo-Nazi gatherings and demonstrations and also photographs of the men holding flags adorned with the swastika. This led to assurances by Czech Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanová that the members would be dismissed from the army – Nazi groups are explicitly outlawed in the Czech Republic. According to a new report by the paper, the identified men still remain in the army despite Defence Ministry assurances. The revelations have led to calls from civic groups and also several politicians for the matter to be resolved without further delay.