Prague - Former Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas has been charged with offering bribes, his lawyer Josef Lzicar confirmed to Aktualne.cz.
"I have learned this from Mr Necas, I spoke to him a while ago. We will meet tomorrow to discuss it," Lzicar said on Monday, February 11.
The former Civic Democrat (ODS) prime minister's criminal prosecution was first reported by the Novinky.cz website. Necas has been charged in relation to the lucrative public sector jobs awarded to former Civic Democratic lawmakers Petr Tluchor, Ivan Fuksa, and Marek Snajdr.
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The so-called Nagyova case, named after the ex-PM's key adviser and mistress, brought down the Necas government in June last year and is considered the biggest political scandal in the history of the independent Czech Republic.
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The ex-PM says he is innocent. "He believes that his political steps are being criminalized," said Lzicar.
"It is a deliberate and politically motivated step that confirms that this has been a political process from the beginning. There has never been an agreement on the resignation of the three former deputies in exchange for posts in state-run companies and police do not and cannot have evidence that proves it," Necas told the Reflex weekly newspaper. Necas also said that police and state prosecutors are exacting revenge for the criminal complaint he filed against Robert Slachta, head of the Czech anti-organized crime unit (UOOZ).
"I have a feeling that it is Mr Istvan's last desperate attempt to prove that his raid last summer in Prague was somehow justified," said ODS lawmaker Marek Benda in reference to state prosecutor Ivo Istvan who oversees the prosecution of the Nagyova case.
"There have been a lot of accusations and unclear actions in this case and nothing has been proved so far, so we just have to wait for the outcome of the investigation and hope that the police and the Czech justice system are impartial," said ODS spokesman Jiri Sochor.
