News

A 33-year-old woman who passed herself off as a 13-year-old girl and then a 12-year-old boy was found not guilty on charges of identity fraud in Brno on Friday. Upon announcement of the verdict, however, Barbora Škrlová was immediately re-arrested. Ms Škrlová is also a key witness in a high-profile child abuse case. A judge will now decide whether she should remain in custody until this child abuse trial takes place on June 17. She stood accused of identity fraud alongside one other individual, Kateřina Mauerová. Ms Mauerová posed as Barbora Škrlová’s adoptive aunt, and successfully had Ms. Škrlová taken into a children’s home from which she later escaped.

Czech President Václav Klaus has vetoed an amendment to the country’s conflict of interest law which would see politicians having to declare the value of the properties they own. According to Mr Klaus, the amendment is ‘unsystematic, ill-conceived and chaotic’ and infringes upon an individual’s right to privacy. The president said he was unhappy with the fact that, under the new legislation, head teachers of both primary and secondary schools would have to, in theory, make public their property assets as well. The amendment can still be passed in spite of Mr Klaus’s veto if a majority of deputies in the Czech lower house vote to overrule the president’s decision.

Prague City Hall has banned four marches planned by right-wing extremists for May 14, a spokesman for the council said Friday. Neo-Nazis wanted to march from the capital’s Letná district to the Isreali Embassy on Badeni Street. Organisers said the marches were to protest against ‘Jewish chauvenism’, Prague City Hall said that such protests were ‘actually aimed at inciting hatred on grounds of religious conviction’. The outlawed marches would have coincided with another meeting, organized by the Prague Jewish Community, in front of the embassy at the same time.

Injured Czech football team captain Tomáš Rosický announced on Friday that he will not be taking part in next month’s European Championships due to a recurring knee injury. At a special news conference, Rosický said that he would be going for an operation at the start of next week. The midfielder has been out since the end of January with the painful knee injury. Speculation has mounted locally that Czech manager Karel Brückner will be forced to try and tempt Juventus midfielder Pavel Nedvěd to return to the national team after his international retirement declared soon after the 2006 World Cup.