Governor of Moravia-Silesia resigns after being convicted of bribery

The governor of the Moravia-Silesia Region Jan Krkoška, who was found guilty of bribery by a Prague court on Thursday has resigned from office. He has also quit as regional councillor and will leave the ranks of the ANO party at the request of its leader Andrej Babiš. The case, which relates to large-scale bribery of doctors by pharmaceutical companies, is 12 years old and involves close to 200 people. Krkoška, who pleaded guilty, committed the act in his former position as a representative of a pharmaceutical company. He was ordered by the court to pay a fine of 200,000 crowns.

He is to be replaced as governor of Moravia-Silesia by Josef Bělica from the ANO party.