On its campaign posters before the June election, the Freedom Union party proclaimed that "It's legal to be a loser." This proved to be small consolation for Pavel Němec, who resigned as the party's chairman just three days after the Freedom Union gained less than 1 percent of the vote, costing the party its parliamentary seats.

Some now call him "a political corpse."

As the country's youngest-ever justice minister, Němec, now 35, looks back on a number of controversies, the biggest stemming from his support of the extradition of a Qatari prince who was convicted of sexually abusing underage Czech girls.

With the curtains drawn, and the room submerged in semidarkness, Němec's office looked like a twilight zone during a recent rainy afternoon interview with The Prague Post. The chamber was spacious enough to have a decent echo and looked several sizes too big for him.

Němec, slight and boyish, with a snub nose, squinty eyes and ears that stick out prominently, sat on an oversized couch that nearly engulfed him. He fiddled with his fingers, alternately reclining back and leaning forward. Occasionally, he heaved an exasperated sigh. Fortunately for Němec, it was his last interview as justice minister.

Two days later, Sept. 1, Němec, like other members of the Social Democratic (ČSSD)–led government, ended his term. He is leaving politics indefinitely and is hoping for a career in law.

No regrets

"I take things in life as they are," he said, leaning farther back into the couch. "I don't like thinking about what I could have done differently. It's important to learn from your mistakes so that you don't end up repeating them. I don't like contemplating 'what if' scenarios."

When asked whether he feels any guilt about helping extradite a convicted rapist last year, Němec sounded resolute.

"Why should I?" he asked. "In the Czech Republic, you have a number of trials that drag on for years. You have cases that go on for as long as 10 years. If we were to judge the Qatari justice system by comparing it to the Czech one, then I wouldn't say that the length of the trial [of the Qatari prince] is that unusual."

Hamid bin Abdul Sani, a member of the Qatari royal family, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in May for molesting two girls after prosecutors weighed evidence that he had paid 14 girls, most under the age of 15, for sex. Němec then helped him get extradited in August. The case of Sani, who was neither Qatari diplomatic corps nor entitled to legal immunity, is still dragging on in his home country while he remains free on bail.

Němec said of the case, "Although the foreign affairs minister doesn't admit to it, the initiative came from the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Even if the case might look slightly messy at first glance, the procedure was legally correct. You can't blame a justice minister who made a decision in accordance with the law."

The Czech Republic's supreme state attorney at the time, Marie Benešová, criticized Němec's move, suggesting that he had connections with the Qatari royal family. The fact that the recently married Němec had honeymooned in Qatar didn't help his case.

Němec then pushed to have Benešová sacked. "I simply don't think that Marie Benešová is the type of person who should be carrying out the function of supreme state attorney," he said. "Such a person needs to be responsible and level-headed, especially when it comes to how she presents herself in the media."

For her part, Benešová, who is running for the Senate this October, said it's no great loss that Němec is leaving politics. "He's a cynical, crafty person, who will use whatever means necessary to get what he wants. The only thing he has done for the justice system is bring in more money."

It's hard to find people who have good things to say about Němec these days, even within the ranks of his former party. Former Defense Minister Karel Kühnl, who resigned as deputy chairman of the Freedom Union the same day as Němec resigned his party post, refused to comment on the former justice minister's role in the party's decline. "That would end up being a very long discussion that I'm not willing to get into," he said.

Martina Lustigová, a political analyst who lectures at Charles University says, however, that the Freedom Union, which splintered off from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) in 1998, was on a downward spiral long before Němec came along.

"From the very start, a lot of people viewed Freedom Union members as deserters who betrayed the ODS," Lustigová said. "And the party lost many of its supporters when it formed a coalition with the [left-wing] Social Democrats."

Němec probably couldn't have saved the party, she says, but he didn't help it either. "He's just not a very charismatic leader."

The campaign that was too bold

Němec drew a loud sigh and looked pained when the conversation turned to the June election. The Freedom Union's political campaign raised eyebrows with would-be rebellious slogans stuck to lampposts, guerrilla-style, like "It's legal to smoke" and "It's legal to use it," in an attempt to appeal to younger voters.

Shortly before the election, Němec took part in a pro-marijuana rally, and one of the party's TV campaign spots featured a young man igniting his farts with a cigarette lighter.

What were the party leaders thinking?

Němec made an uncomfortable grimace. "We weren't a rich party. We figured the less money we had, the bolder our campaign has to be," he said.

"Obviously, that proved to be a bad strategy. It's hard to say to what degree the campaign had an impact on the terrible election result we got. But I accept full responsibility for the election failure of the Freedom Union."

Němec said the Freedom Union, along with other small parties, was harmed by the way the biggest parties, the ČSSD and the ODS, took center stage during the campaign.

"Just look at the Christian Democrats. They lost a lot of voters, too," he said.

In spite of the fiascoes that have followed him throughout the past year, Němec maintains that he brought about changes for the better in the justice system. He prides himself, for instance, on having pushed through the conflict-of-interest law.

"It's a very sensitive topic," Němec said, looking at a sheet of paper with printed notes. "All deputies seem to think they understand it, so I consider it an important achievement that the law has now come into effect."

During his term, Němec also called for more investments into the ailing prison system. He says this should be one of the priorities of the new justice minister.

"It's possible to save on people, but only so long as prisons are equipped with sufficiently modern technology, security gates, X-rays," he said.

Němec argues that at least 300 million Kč ($13.7 million) should be invested into the system in the next few years.

But underfunded prisons aren't the only problem of the justice system, in which courts are notoriously slow and inefficient. As many as 5,000 people have failed to turn up to serve their sentences. They face no sanctions for this.

"It's a sore point of the justice system," he admitted. "One of the ways to help deal with it would be to increase the number of places in prisons as well as imposing house arrest on offenders who commit lesser crimes. In Western countries, there is a trend of introducing alternative types of punishment."

Another dark memory hovering over Němec's term is his failure to push through the long-planned overhaul of the Criminal Code, which was, among other things, to lower the age at which juveniles can be tried for serious crimes as adults from 15 to 14.

"I wouldn't say the failure to push through the new Criminal Code is tragic. But it is a pity. After all, it took more than 10 years to prepare."

One person Němec will not miss now that he's left politics is former Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek. Shortly before the June election, Paroubek singled him out as the worst member of his government during a press conference. Was it justified, or was this a personal attack?

Unsurprisingly, Němec believes it's the latter. "I consider it to be unbelievably insolent. It's unheard of that the prime minister would criticize one of his coalition partners this way. My relations with Paroubek got off to a very bad start when he started at the Regional Development Ministry. He was just trying to attack me."

Lustigová, the political analyst, says it's just as likely that Paroubek picked Němec because he was an easy scapegoat. He couldn't, after all, select one of the ministers from his own party or from among his potential coalition partners.

Despite the long free fall, Němec says he may still somehow return to politics.

"For now, I'm not planning anything," he said, sounding resigned. "But who knows."