Judge found guilty of manipulating protocol statements in Prague’s Opencard case

The senate of the Supreme Administrative Court has found Prague Judge Alexandr Sotolář guilty of retroactively editing protocol statements connected to the Opencard public transport affair. The written form of the statements was subsequently different from the original sound recordings. As a consequence, Mr Sotolář has been demoted from the position of senate chair in Prague’s Municipal Court, but is still able to operate as a judge.

Justice Minister Marie Benešová wanted Mr Sotolář to lose his function as a judge altogether, but the Chairman of the Municipal Court in Prague Libor Vávra proposed the lesser sanction which ended up being approved.

Judge Sotolář admitted that there were differences between the sound and written protocol versions, but said that they were not made only to favour the prosecution, nor was there any intent to damage the defendants in the case.

Charges against him were originally brought forward by the Anticorruption Endowment (Nadační fond proti korupci) non-profit foundation.

Opencard was a CZK 1.5 billion municipal smart card system introduced in the Czech capital in 2008 with the aim of replacing the old paper ticket system. Outsourced to private contractors in what were seen as flawed tenders, the Opencard system was eventually replaced with the Lítačka card system and many municipal officials involved in the original tenders received suspended sentences.