Media: Czech police investigating President Zeman’s inner circle

Policemen from the National Centre for Combating Organised Crime (NCOZ) have begun investigating the inner circle of the hospitalised Czech President Miloš Zeman, news sites Aktuálně.cz a Respekt.cz wrote on Wednesday. Specifically, detectives are looking into whether these individuals did not commit the crimes of failing to provide assistance as well as counterfeiting and misappropriation of the power of an official. In both cases, the accused could face a two year jail sentence.

The investigation was started after a series of criminal complaints reached the police over the past several days. Aleš Cimbala, the spokesman of the Prague Public Prosecution Office, told Aktuálně and Respekt that the investigation is in its early stages, with policemen checking whether a crime did in fact take place.

President Zeman is currently in intensive care at the Military University Hospital in Prague. He was transferred to the hospital on October 10 from his Lány country residency. Lány is also the location in which the alleged failure to provide assistance was supposed to have happened.