News

The opposition Social Democrat leader Jiří Paroubek has dismissed media reports which suggest that he has ties to the Czech underworld. The allegations come as speculation intensifies over the precise content of a detailed 11,000 page police report into connections between mafia members, Czech politicians and civil servants. The document, called “Krakatice” represents a police investigation that has gone on for a number of years, focusing in particular on the murdered mobster František Mrázek. Intense speculation has surrounded the report, with confirmations that rebel Civic Democrat MP Vlastimil Tlustý, Interior Minister Ivan Langer and even Czech President Václav Klaus appear in its pages. The latest allegation surrounding the Social Democrat head is the suggestion that František Mrázek was to attempt to seek Mr Paroubek’s help in a business deal – something which Mr Paroubek dismissed, with current reports acknowledging no evidence to support an active connection between the two men. Mr Paroubek also demanded that the “Krakatice” report be made public.

Josef Souček, a major-general who fought against the Nazis on the Western Front has died in Brazil, aged 91. Mr Souček was born in 1917 in Salzburg, Austria and moved to Czechoslovakia shortly after its founding a year later. In 1940, he fled to France, where he joined Czech forces in exile fighting against the Nazis, eventually moving to Britain and ending the war fighting in Dunkerque. Josef Souček was awarded for his gallantry after the war ended, although after the 1948 communist putsch, he emigrated to Britain before moving to Brazil. He was decorated numerous times for his service in Czechoslovakia, France, Britain and Brazil.

A planned protest by members of the right-wing National Party in Brno has fizzled out. The party had planned to protest in front of a mosque, in order to demonstrate against what they view as excessive Muslim influence and to seek an apology for the recent death of the Czech ambassador to Pakistan. In the end, around seven party members entered the mosque, leaving shortly after stating that they had indeed received the apology they were seeking. The entire protest was over. However, representatives from the mosque denied that any apology had been issued, stating that they had nothing to apologise for since they had nothing whatsoever to do with the recent terrorist attacks in Islamabad.

Russian businessman Jevgenij Dogajev, who is accused of threatening to hijack a plane ove Prague in 2006 has disappeared, according to Czech police. Mr Dogajev was due to be handed over to the Russian authorities and was expected to seek asylum in a European country. He was expected to turn up at Prague’s Ruzyně airport Wednesday to be flown to Russia, but police soon stated that he had failed to show up, meaning a default on his two million crown bail money.