Court rulings go against Social Democrats head Paroubek

The leader of the Social Democrats, Jiří Paroubek, lost a complaint against the newspaper Mladá fronta Dnes over its suggestions that he ordered the arrest of fugitive businessman Tomáš Pitr while he was prime minister. Mr Paroubek had been demanding the right to reply with an article in the paper giving his side of the story. The Social Democrats head also came out on the losing side in a different case heard by a Prague court on Tuesday, after demanding an apology and compensation over the leaking of a police report on organised crime linking his party to the underworld ahead of the last general elections. The Prague High Court rejected an appeal against a ruling against Jiří Paroubek handed down in June. On Monday, the politician’s wife lost a libel case she took against a magazine over what she alleged were pornographic drawings of the couple.