News
DA dismisses case against Nečas over amnesty
The district attorney for Prague 1 concluded on Friday that Prime Minister Petr Nečas did not commit a crime by co-signing the presidential amnesty announced on New Year’s day. The attorney’s office thus decided not to pursue the complaint filed against Mr Nečas by the chairman of the Czech senate, Milan Štěch, and senator Miroslav Antl. The two Social Democratic lawmakers argued that Petr Nečas should not have co-signed the amnesty initiated by the former president Václav Klaus without first receiving approval from his cabinet. The premier is also facing another complaint over the amnesty that was filed a by a group headed by the billionaire Karel Janeček.
Zeman disagrees with Gašparovič over Visegrad members
After meeting with Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič on Thursday, Czech President Miloš Zeman expressed the hope that the Visegrad group, which includes the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, could be expanded to include Slovenia. The Slovak press reported on Friday that Mr Gašparovič, however, is not in favour of such a move. On the second day of his visit to Slovakia, Mr Zeman is scheduled to lay a wreath at the statue of the co-founder of Czechoslovakia, General Milan Štefánik, in Bratislava. The Czech president will complete his first international visit with a lunch on Friday with the chairman of the Slovak Parliament, Dušan Paška.
Rath’s case reaches court
After months of preparations, the state prosecutor’s office has filed a lawsuit against former Central Bohemian governor and MP David Rath and ten other defendants, accusing them of corruption and abuse of office; if found guilty, Mr Rath faces up to 12 years in prison. Because of the considerable amount of evidence and documentation involved in the case, the court hearings will most likely only begin in the summer. The former governor remains in custody but could be allowed on bail by the Prague regional court.
ČEZ expects losses resulting from Romania limiting support for renewable energy
The Romanian government has decided to limit support for existing renewable energy providers and to halt funding for any new projects. This decision will affect the Czech company ČEZ which owns a wind farm in the country. The energy giant has lost its energy distribution license in Albania in January, and its operations in Bulgaria have been under investigation for the past two months.
Case of Chrastava shooter to continue
A request by Pavel Vondrouš, who shot former president Václav Klaus with an air gun last September, for criminal prosecution against him to be dropped has been rejected. The Liberec state prosecutor, Ivan Bernátek, said he sees no reason to suspend the investigation or downgrade the case to an infraction. The 26-year old defendant says that he shot Mr Klaus in the town of Chrastava with the non-lethal weapon to show that politicians in this country do not listen to regular citizens.
Czech Post to provide exact gas prices online
The Czech Post is launching a new online service that would provide exact daily gas prices at petrol stations around the country. The postal service created the project with the Industry and Trade Ministry according to the Hospodářské noviny daily, and will rely on the information that letter carriers will gather on their daily routes.
US helps transport uranium from Czech research facility.
American specialists were instrumental in retrieving 68 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from the Czech Republic and bringing it to Russia where it will be turned into low-enriched uranium and used as fuel for nuclear reactors. The United States paid for the transportation of the uranium, which was produced at the research reactor in the town of Řež near Prague. The Czech authorities provided the containers.
Sudek and Rössler claim top dollar at Christie’s
Christie’s auction house in New York sold works by famous 20th century Czech photographers Josef Sudek and Jaroslav Rössler for a total of 143,750 dollars, or 2.9 million crowns. Photographs by two other Czech greats František Drtikol and Jaromír Funk were not auctioned off. The works by the four artists were part of a larger private collection. František Drtikol nonetheless remains the top-selling Czech photographer abroad, with his photograph A Snow Wave having been sold for 312 thousand dollars six years ago in New York.
Tennis: Czechs lead 2:0 at Davis Cup quarterfinals in Kazakhstan
Defending Davis Cup champions, the Czech Republic, are leading in the Davis Cup quarterfinal against Kazakhstan, after Jan Hájek beat Michail Kukushin in three sets in the first match in Astana. Lukáš Rosol added an important second point by defeating Andrei Golubov: the final score was 4:6, 6:4, 6:2, 7:6. In the doubles match on Saturday, Radek Štěpánek and Ivo Minář will play the Kazakhstani pair Yuri Schukin, Evgeny Korolev.
Hockey: Zlín beat Třinec to reach playoffs’ finals
Zlín defeated Třinec 4:3 in the best-of-seven semifinal series of the Czech hockey league playoffs on Thursday night to book a place in the final. Zlín scored the first goal of the game very early, and added another goal five minutes into the second period. The hosts Třinec equalized just two minutes later but Zlín scored their second goal just before the second intermission. The visitors then added two more goals with some ten minutes to go and Třinec were only able to narrow the gap but failed to take the game into overtime. Zlín, who advanced to the finals after eight years, will face Plzeň for the league title.
Weather
It will be mostly cloudy, with some rain showers towards the evening. Daytime highs will be between 5 and 7 degrees Celsius.
