• Constitutional Court will not rule on healthcare fees before end of year
    12/14/2007

    The chairman of the Constitutional Court, Pavel Rychetsky, has said that the court will not rule on a complaint on healthcare fees put forward by the opposition Social Democrats before the end of the year. The court is to study whether payments for visits to the doctor to be introduced as of January 1 are unconstitutional – clashing with the country’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. Mr Rychetsky told radio station Frekvence 1 people would have to obey the law unless the Constitutional Court annulled the legislation, part of the government’s reforms. The court chairman stressed he disagreed with a petition launched this week by some politicians and public figures, calling on the public to express civil disobedience and to ignore the law when it comes into effect.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • South African court fails to decide on Krejcir extradition
    12/14/2007

    A first instance court in Johannesburg, South Africa, has failed to decide whether Czech-born businessman Radovan Krejcir will be extradited for prosecution in the Czech Republic. The judge in charge of the case released the information to the Czech news agency CTK on Friday. Mr Krejcir, wanted on suspicion of a number of serious crimes in the Czech Republic, escaped from Czech police during a search of his family’s luxury villa in June 2005. He went into hiding in the Seychelles but was later apprehended in South Africa while using a false passport. He was held in custody but has since been released on bail.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Prague State Attorney’s Office: MP did not commit crime in Kubice report leak
    12/14/2007

    The Prague State Attorney’s Office has revealed that Christian Democrat MP Pavel Severa did not commit a crime in the case of leaking the so-called “Kubice report” – a report presented by former senior police officer Jan Kubice outlining alleged links between organised crime and the state administration. The report was leaked to the media shortly before parliamentary elections in 2006, after the officer appeared before a lower house committee. Mr Severa was suspected of having put classified information at risk through negligence. The Social Democrats, who lost the election, have contended the report influenced its outcome. They originally blamed the right-of-centre Civic Democrats of having purposely leaked the document.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Police investigate possible tax fraud, improper business practices, on part of Bursiks
    12/14/2007

    Czech daily Lidove Noviny has reported that police are investigating the head of the Green Party and Environment Minister Martin Bursik, together with his brother Jiri, on the suspicion of improper business practices. The newspaper said in its Friday edition that the police were looking into a number of possible crimes, including tax fraud. The Bursiks may have breached the law in connection with a building the brothers own and rented through their own company. The environment minister – attending a conference on global warming in Bali – is to return to the Czech Republic on Sunday. Anonymous charges were reportedly put forward against the politician soon after the Greens threatened to leave the government – if embattled former deputy prime minister, Jiri Cunek, was reinstated to the cabinet.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Czechs to draft plan for fighting domestic violence
    12/14/2007

    The new committee for the prevention of domestic violence established by the Czech government's council for equal opportunities will draft an action plan for fighting against domestic violence, the minister in charge of minorities and human rights Dzamila Stehlikova has revealed. The committee's priority will be the preparation of proposals for the government for including certain measures against domestic violence among crimes, she told journalists after the first committee meeting. She also stressed the committee would also focus on the better protection of children against domestic violence. Domestic violence has been punishable in the Czech Republic since June 2004. As of this year, police can expel the perpetrators of domestic violence from their home for a ten-day period. The measure is aimed at protecting victims against further attacks.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • International clinic labs to open in Czech Republic in 2008
    12/14/2007

    Two laboratories belonging to the International Clinical Research Centre (ICRC), where Czech doctors will be able to cooperate with specialists from the US Mayo Clinic, will open in Brno next year and later be moved to a new ICRC centre to be completed by 2011. Construction of the final site, to be built within the complex of the St Anne Teaching Hospital, is to begin in mid-2008. Health Minister Tomas Julinek said the government had earmarked 1.5 to 2 billion crowns for the project. The ICRC will focus on research in such areas as cardiology, cardiosurgery, internal medicine, and neurology. Patients will also be treated there; the latest methods in medicine developed in the US will be made available to Czech patients at the centre.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • NHL ice hockey: Hemsky cuts short Detroit winning streak
    12/14/2007

    In NHL ice hockey action on Thursday Edmonton Oiler Ales Hemsky was the only player to score in a penalty shootout against Detroit, beating goalie Dominik Hasek. The final score in the game was 4:3. The Oilers snapped a seven-game winning streak by the Red Wings, who otherwise continue to top the National Hockey League standings. In other action, netminder Tomas Vokoun turned away 33 shots to help the Florida Panthers beat St Louis 1:0. The shutout is Vokoun’s third this season.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • EU leaders sign Treaty of Lisbon
    12/13/2007

    A Czech government delegation led by Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek is in Portugal where EU leaders on Thursday signed the Treaty of Lisbon, a toned down version of the EU constitution which French and Dutch voters rejected in national referendums in 2005. The signing will start a ratification process by national EU parliaments which is to be concluded by January of 2009. The new pact aims to create a more effective foreign policy, stronger leadership and more streamlined decision making within the expanded 27 member block. Observers say that its chances of winning approval are higher than that of the old treaty since the vast majority of EU member states have indicated they will ratify the text in parliament. Only Ireland is constitutionally bound to hold a national referendum.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Agreement reached on church restitutions
    12/13/2007

    A government commission and representatives of the country’s 17 registered churches have reached agreement on a settlement of church restitution claims. According to Culture Minister Vaclav Jehlicka the state has offered to restitute a third of the property churches have laid claim to and is ready to pay financial compensation for property which cannot be restituted over a period of 60 to 70 years. This arrangement has been approved by church representatives and will now be presented to the government and parliament for approval.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Detectives get high prison sentences for conspiring with gangsters
    12/13/2007

    Two former detectives of the Interior Ministry’s elite crime squad have received high prison sentences for conspiring with gangsters. Josef Opava and Petr Konarik received 13- and ten-year prison sentences respectively for conspiring with the leaders of the so-called Berdych gang, providing them with information from police files, destroying evidence in their favour and helping them escape prosecution on numerous occasions. The Berdych gang is believed to be the biggest organized crime ring in the country. It is suspected of a vast number of murders, robberies and extortion of rich entrepreneurs in the years between 1995 and 2004. Some members of the gang have already been convicted, others are awaiting trial.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

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