The Prague Post Online: News: Half of unit resigns with Kubice

October 12th, 2008

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Half of unit resigns with Kubice

Row over head of organized crime police squad continues

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
November 7th, 2007 issue

Last May, Jan Kubice, the elusive chief of the police organized crime unit (ÚOOZ), presented to Parliament a series of tapes that landed him in the middle of a messy political brawl.

Dubbed the “Kubice report” by local media, the tapes incriminated high-ranking members of the Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) of having connections to the mafia.

For Kubice, who helmed the ÚOOZ since its creation in 1995, the report signaled the beginning of the end of his career in the police force. Apparently yielding to the pressures of the ČSSD, who continue to blame the tapes for their loss to the opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) in the June 2006 government elections, Kubice announced Oct. 24 his intentions to resign as ÚOOZ chief at the end of this year.

“Kubice’s resignation is the result of outside pressure,” says František Bublan (ČSSD), who was interior minister when Kubice publicized the report. “There is a push for the [ÚOOZ] to function apolitically, which would never happen with Kubice as its leader.”

By unearthing information that discredited the ČSSD, Kubice aligned himself with the ODS, threatening the integrity of the traditionally unaffiliated ÚOOZ.

“If Kubice stayed, the police would continue to lose credit, and there would be more affairs [like the Kubice report],” Bublan says.

‘Corrupt force’

While top ODS officials, including current Interior Minister Ivan Langer, praise Kubice for his “years of good work,” leading Social Democrats applaud his departure as a necessary step toward purging the ÚOOZ of the “corrupt force” behind the Kubice report, which they see as an ODS-led campaign to discredit their party prior to the 2006 elections.

“As long as his bad, unprofessional behavior had a political context and was easy to exploit by [the ODS], Kubice and his colleagues were untouchable,” says Jeroným Tejc, chairman of the ČSSD security commission. “Now, even those who reaped the benefits of his subpar work realized that it was no longer possible to let the situation continue.”

According to Bublan, the Kubice report not only discredited Kubice himself, but also had a negative impact on the squad as a whole. “The Kubice report was the work of a handful of people, but it compromised the investigations of practically the entire unit,” he says.

Outraged by the report’s allegations, top ČSSD officials launched investigations into the internal workings of the ÚOOZ in the fall of 2006, marring long-term projects to uncover rings of counterfeiters and human traffickers. “The entire operation of the ÚOOZ was compromised, and many detectives got angry at this,” Bublan says.

But not everyone is cross with the media-shy police chief.

As the founding father of the ÚOOZ, Kubice earned the loyalty and respect of his employees, says ÚOOZ spokeswoman Blanka Kosinová.

“The managerial position of such an elite unit is extremely psychologically demanding,” she says. “His success is evidenced by his ability to handle these pressures.”

According to Kosinová, the squad tackled its biggest hurdle in 1995, when U Holubů — a mission leading to the dissolution of an intricate Russian mafia ring — led to the politically motivated arrest, trial and subsequent acquittal of two ÚOOZ policemen. “Aside from the U Holubů mission, the ÚOOZ never had any significant problems during its entire existence,” Kosinová says.

This December, Kosinová herself plans to leave the ÚOOZ, along with deputy chiefs Hynek Vlas, Jiří Sadílek, Evžen Vesecký and approximately 45 other detectives. If realized, the mass resignation would slash the squad’s staff by nearly 50 percent.

While declining to disclose further details, Kosinová alludes to Supreme State Attorney Renata Vesecká’s Oct. 9 decision to reopen a 2006 investigation into the manner in which the Kubice report was compiled as one of the reasons behind the exodus.

“If you read the papers at all, you know why we’re all leaving,” she says.

According to Bublan, the mass resignation points to the overall disgruntled state of the police force.

“There is no single reason behind this general discontent,” he says. “It can be caused by everything from changes in overtime regulations and low chances of promotion to unhappiness with the leadership.”

The drop in morale comes amid Langer’s plans to reorganize the police force. To enable better communication and coordination between independent squads, Langer wants to consolidate them under one roof, which he says would prevent their activities from overlapping.

Bublan says it is unlikely the reforms are to blame for the decline.

If there is one unifying factor behind the discontent, it’s the interior minister’s lack of support for the police, he says.

“The police force is a complex but very sensitive unit,” he adds. “The public is generally against them, so it’s up to the minister to give them moral support and not leave them to their own devices.”

Whatever the reasons for the disquietude, the loss of so many highly trained employees could have a long-lasting impact on crime rates, Bublan says.

“Many capable detectives work at the ÚOOZ. If they leave, the unit will have fewer results,” he adds. “With less monitoring, criminals will have more opportunities to organize. The consequences of the disruption of such a specialized unit will only become apparent in a few years.”

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com

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