Press Review
A slew of legal and moral dilemmas - that could be one way of characterising the stories in today's papers: dilemmas faced by the Czech Republic. PRAVO takes note of calls for financial compensation for some of the Sudeten Germans expelled after World War II, while MLADA FRONTA DNES unravels the extensive legal case with Frantisek Oldrich Kinsky, a descendent of the former aristocratic family asking for the return of property confiscated after the Second World War. But, we begin first with LIDOVE NOVINY on a possible new arbitration case involving the Czech Republic and the Italian company Invesmart.
Following the famous TV NOVA case in which the Czech Republic was ordered to pay 10 billion crowns for failing to protect large investments by a foreign investor, Invesmart is now asking for the same amount, for the same reasons. LIDOVE NOVINY writes the Italian company is asking for compensation for investments it claims it sank - and lost - in the now bankrupt Union Banka financial house.
But, so far, state officials are remaining calm, writes the daily, quoting one official from the Czech National Bank who feels Invesmart has no chance. He says the company didn't really invest anything in the end. Or rather, what it put into Union Banka it withdrew in time. Invesmart doesn't see things quite the same way. Its representatives say that the National Bank ultimately hurt the company by failing as a watchdog to see the troubles swamping Union Banka. Invesmart representatives say the National Bank should have never allowed their move into the troubled banking house in the first place.
As mentioned Frantisek Oldrich Kinsky, descendent of aristocrats, has launched a major legal offensive aimed at regaining property confiscated after the Second World War. Kinsky has already won five related lawsuits, writes MLADA FRONTA DNES, while 157 remain. All in all, the daily says, Mr Kinsky is battling for property worth 40 billion crowns, property confiscated under the Benes Decrees.
Already it is clear that returning the property to Mr Kinksy is something politicians here would not like to see. Writes MLADA FRONTA DNES: a meeting of the political leadership on Tuesday tried to address the problem of how to defend the controversial Benes Decrees from continued legal assaults. The answer would be for a new law to be passed, nothing of course has been agreed on as yet. Such steps, however, are being criticised by the Constitutional Court. The daily quotes Constitutional Judge Antonin Prochazka who sees, for example, Culture Minister Pavel Dostal's initiative in the matter as 'reminiscent' of the state's approach under totalitarianism. "If the courts rule in favour of Mr Kinsky based on legal fact, than the property must be returned. The chips must fall where they must." he tells the daily.
As reported earlier in the news German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has decided to back Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber in his call for financial compensation for some Sudeten Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after World War II. PRAVO quotes Mr Fischer as writing that a sum of 4.5 million euros could be used from the Czech-German Fund, for ethnic Germans who suffered the worst reprisals: prison, forced labour, torture. The daily compares the sum to the amount paid out by Germany to Czechs in compensation for Nazi atrocities: a sum about 10 times higher. PRAVO concludes by quoting Mr Fischer's view that such a step by the Czech Republic would improve bi-lateral relations.
Finally, we end with a look at sports making headlines this day: while hockey great Wayne Gretzky is getting much attention in Prague, lobbying for Vancouver as the site for the 2010 Winter Games, it is hockey star Dominik Hasek who probably interests Czech fans the most.
MLADA FRONTA DNES notes that the NHL's Detroit Red Wings, with whom Hasek won the Stanley Cup before retiring last year, have exercised their option on extending their contract with the 38-year-old goalie. The daily writes all it will take now will be for Hasek to give the nod.
The paper however, indicates that not all see his possible return in a positive light. It quotes the Detroit Free Press as writing "Hasek must have gotten bored of beating-up opponents in in-line hockey", referring to the player's recent violent outburst in which he injured another player on in-lines, currently being investigated by police. The quote ends "He just wants one final juicy pay-check." Well, all that may seem a little harsh on one of hockey's greatest all-time goalies, but the fact is his legal transgression isn't going to go away just yet.
