Police open criminal proceedings in MoD corruption case

Police have officially opened criminal proceedings in a corruption case involving a multimillion-crown arms order at the Ministry of Defence, the Supreme Public Prosecutor Renata Vesecká told television Prima on Sunday. According to the spokesman for the anti-corruption branch of the police force, detectives officially opened the case on Thursday, the day after the daily Mladá fronta dnes described a plot by a deputy defence minister to take millions in kickbacks on an order of mortars. The paper reported that it followed Jaroslav Kopřiva and a lobbyist for six months as they planned to frame the order as a joint purchase with the Slovak government, helping them bypass a public tender and winning it for the Finnish company Patria. The paper later presented its evidence to the Minister of Defence with Kopřiva being sacked on the spot.