Prague - The Czech lower chamber has received today a request from state prosecutor Ivo Istvan to release lawmaker and outgoing Prime Minister Petr Necas for criminal prosecution.
Necas resigned last month over a corruption and illegal spying scandal of his close aide Jana Nagyova, who was arrested alongside with other senior state officials and three former lawmakers from Necas's ruling Civic Democratic Party (ODS) in a massive police raid. Nagyova and two senior military intelligence officers currently stand accused of illegally spying on Necas's wife, while the three former lawmakers are charged with corruption in relation to the lucrative positions in state-run companies they received in exchange for resigning as lawmakers in 2012.
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Now police want to prosecute Petr Necas himself, most likely over the latter case of the former ODS lawmakers.
"Chamber of Deputies speaker Miroslava Nemcova has already passed the request to the (lower chamber's) mandate and political immunity committee," said Eva Smerdova from Nemcova's office. The committee's deputy chairman Frantisek Dedic (ODS) said he would ask police to provide the committee with more documents, adding that Istvan's request was "stern". "It does not include the (police) file," Dedic told state Czech Press Agency.
The request to strip Necas of his political immunity will be discussed by the lower chamber on July 17.
Political immunity committee member and ODS lawmaker Jan Vidim said he will vote against the request. Jeronym Tejc from the left-wing opposition Czech Social Democratic Party said he is more inclined to vote in favor of the proposal.
The ODS leadership has already said that it supports Necas in the ongoing political scandal. The party said in a press release that the awarding of the senior public sector posts to the three ex-lawmakers was a common political deal, not an act of corruption.
