Rebel deputy lodges slander complaint against TV Nova

Rebel Civic Democrat MP Vlastimil Tlustý has filed a criminal complaint against commercial broadcaster TV Nova, for claiming the deputy secretly taped meetings between himself and the prime minister. The MP is seeking an official apology and one million crowns in damages. Mr Tlustý was a key figure in a scandal which erupted on the Czech political scene recently involving alleged entrapment of a colleague in Parliament. On Thursday the Czech daily Mladá fronta Dnes also reported it had evidence that in the past Mr Tlustý had links to organised crime in the Czech Republic, specifically, to businessman Frantisek Mrázek, who was murdered in 2006. The daily cited police wiretap recordings as evidence of a connection between the two men.