A case like that of the David Berdych gang has a number of things going for it besides its value in bringing to justice a ruthless pack of criminals who preyed on businessmen by kidnapping them and extorting money from their companies and families.

For one thing, a group of defendants numbering 30 — not counting for the moment the 11 additional suspects picked up the weekend before the Feb. 1 trial got started — makes for a dramatic spectacle.

If you were inclined toward skepticism about good government in the Czech Republic, you just might wonder about the timing of such a show of getting tough on crime. The recent reputation of the Justice Ministry has been anything but lustrous — and, apart from the drop in the homicide rate in the 2005 crime statistics, Czech police have not been enjoying much better press.

While the police continue to stand by their internationally embarrassing behavior last summer, during which they beat unarmed techno dancers to break up a party in the countryside, other blunders continue to haunt them. Just this week Czech Television aired interviews with Radovan Krejčíř, who was located in the Seychelles Islands (by journalists, not police) after escaping during a search of his house in June. The image of this billionaire fugitive, wanted on charges of fraud and contract murder, enjoying his seaside retreat while having cocktails with reporters won't go away any time soon, much as some might want it to.

Meanwhile Justice Minister Pavel Němec is still trying his best to dismiss the allegations of Jaroslav Fenyk, a respected attorney who has resigned as chief state prosecutor, charging that political interference in criminal cases has reached the point where he feels unable to do his job.

Fenyk, you may recall, worked closely with former Supreme State Attorney Marie Benešová, who was sacked by Němec after she insisted on prosecuting a Qatari prince on multiple counts of child molesting. Němec had tried unsuccessfully to send the prince home without trial, even though he was just a businessman with no diplomatic status in the Czech Republic.

Meanwhile, Němec's latest purge, of Supreme Court Chairwoman Iva Brožová, has thrown into doubt the entire notion of an independent judiciary. Brožová, who was appointed by Václav Havel in 2002, maintains that President Václav Klaus, who carried out the justice minister's request last week, has no legal authority to dismiss her. The stated reasons for firing Brožová — that she was poorly suited to her job and generally ineffective — are pretty much the standard boilerplate for sacking inconveniently independent figures.

Brožová, at any rate, is unconvinced by the rhetoric and is suing the entire government, charging a constitutional breakdown.

On another front, the web of intrigue behind the professional contract murder of František Mrázek Jan. 25 gets more visible every day, most recently with the doomed cooking oil baron telling Czech TV reporters on tape that he believed he'd soon be hit by Krejčíř.