Police have fresh evidence against Jiri Cunek

The police say they are in possession of new evidence suggesting that the Minister for Regional Development Jiri Cunek accepted a half-a-million crown (over 23,000 US dollars) bribe when he was mayor of the town of Vsetin. In June 2002, Jiri Cunek placed close to half a million crowns in his bank account shortly after the company H&B Real withdrew almost exactly the same amount from its own account. Since the real estate company was dealing with the town hall at the time, the police suspect that Mr Cunek was bribed. Mr Cunek has rejected the accusations saying that the half a million crowns were family savings. He has also agreed to give up his parliamentary immunity and fully cooperate with investigators.