News

A second police officer, suspected of selling the photographs of the dead body of composer Karel Svoboda to a tabloid newspaper, has been charged with abuse of office. Police took the photographs after Mr Svoboda committed suicide two weeks ago. The 32-year old officer had been in the police for 15 years. A 22-year old police officer was charged with abuse of office last week, both have been sacked from the police force.

Czech daily Mlada fronta Dnes reports that former Czech prime minister and central bank governor Josef Tosovsky collaborated with the communist secret police (StB). The paper says Mr Tosovsky had been approached by the StB in 1986 and maintained contacts with them for the next two years. His work for the StB seemed to consist of expert analyses of financial markets and assessing foreign visits to the Czechoslovak State Bank. There is no evidence that Mr Tosovsky's alleged cooperation ever led to anyone being prosecuted by the secret police.

The Czech Footwear Association says imports of shoes grew by 25 percent year-on-year in 2006. The amount of shoes imported last year reached 97 million pairs worth 8.5 billion crowns (390 million USD), with China taking the largest share. For several years, domestic producers have blamed cheap imports from Asia for their bad economic situation. Czech production stayed at 5 million pairs, the same as in 2005.

Culture Minister Vaclav Jehlicka visited the Moravian town of Prerov on Monday to support local officials who are trying to halt demolition work on a historical building. The Culture Ministry wants to put the early 20th century building back on the list of cultural monuments after having removed it six months ago. In the meantime, however, a local building firm had begun work on demolishing the building despite protests from architectural experts and the Culture Ministry.