State attorney will be dismissed

In response to calls from the Public Affairs (VV) party to fire Supreme State Attorney Renata Vesecká by October, Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil (Civic Democrats) says he will announce within two weeks a plan for replacing Vesecká.

Interior Minister Radek John (VV) said in a Sept. 5 television interview that Vesecká  needed to be dismissed before the October local elections if the government is to honor its promise to fight corruption. John said Vesecká was inhibiting corruption investigations and that in order to improve cooperation between police and the attorney's office, there was no choice but to remove her from her post.

"If it does not happen, we are not a government that fights corruption. And if it is not a government that fights corruption, we do not want to be in it," John said.

Several media outlets reported the statement as a threat to pull VV from the coalition government if Vesecká was not removed, but Petra Hrušová, a VV spokeswoman, insisted this is an exaggeration and distortion of what John said.

Jiří Hovorka, a Justice Ministry spokesman, confirmed that Vesecká will be replaced by Pavel Zeman, a member of the Supreme State Attorney's Office (NSZ) and a representative in Eurojust, a European Union institution promoting legal cooperation between member states.

Pospíšil told Novinky.cz that John's comments were a publicity stunt by VV, because the coalition government had already come to a mutual agreement to replace Vesecká well before Sept. 5.

Hrušová declined to comment on Pospíšil's statement.

Controversy surrounding Vesecká dates back at least three years, when she was tagged as being involved in the so-called judiciary mafia. Vesecká was found by a court to have intentionally sidetracked a corruption investigation into Deputy Prime Minister Jiří Čunek (Christian Democrats) by moving the investigation from one state attorney's office to another. Several state attorneys complained they had been dismissed from their positions because of their criticism of the handling of the Čunek case.

The then-government of Mirek Topolánek collapsed before a decision on removing Vesecká could take place, and she has stayed in the position for an additional 18 months.

- Klára Jiřičná contributed to this report.

Cat Contiguglia can be reached at
ccontiguglia@praguepost.com