The arrests were carried out on suspicion of participation in a criminal group, bribery, and criminal profiteering. Photo credit: TMA / Brno Daily.
Brno, Oct 19 (CTK) – The police organised crime squad (NCOZ) today launched criminal prosecutions against seven individuals and two firms in connection with Tuesday’s raid in Brno City Hall, on suspicion of participation in a criminal group, bribery, criminal profiteering, the High Prosecutor’s Office announced on its website.
The case concerns the privatisation of Brno municipal flats, the activities of one municipal firm, and alleged subsidy fraud.
Within the investigation, the police asked Brno’s Deputy Mayor Petr Hladik, a deputy leader of the junior government Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) and their candidate for environment minister, for access to his office at the City Hall and for explanations.
NCOZ detectives raided offices in Brno on Tuesday, arresting ten people.
They searched the housing department at Brno City Hall, the town halls of the Brno-North and Brno-Cernovice districts, and the Cernovice sand quarry, questioning its executive Jiri Hason (KDU-CSL). They also contacted Hladik and went to his office.
Hladik said in a statement that he would cooperate with the police, and that he was not being accused of anything.
“Criminal proceedings are underway, mainly the questioning of the accused. Searches of homes and other premises were completed on Tuesday,” said prosecutor Petra Lastovecka, from the High Prosecutor’s Office in Olomouc, which is supervising the case.
The server iRozhlas.cz has reported about two distinct branches of the case. The first is an attempt to take control of the Piskovna Cernovice sand quarry municipal company, in which the police are investigating the activities of a businessman named Horky, who they consider to be the boss of a six-member organised criminal group. In the second branch, Horky and his group fraudulently took over residential buildings and flats using bribery, and then sold them on for a profit, the server writes.
Police officers were also in the legal office of KDU-CSL politician Filip Leder. He told CTK that the police had visited him in connection with his client, and that he had been neither arrested nor charged.
Brno Mayor Marketa Vankova (ODS) told reporters that the police had raided the City’s housing department in Malinovského náměstí. Detectives also went to Hladik’s office in Dominikánské náměstí, from where they removed some materials.
Brno-Cernovice Mayor Petra Quittova (STAN), who is also an MP, confirmed a police raid in her town hall, and Česká Televize reported on the raid in the Piskovna Cernovice firm fully owned by the Cernovice municipality.
The police recently intervened in Brno in another case related to municipal flats at the Brno-Stred Town Hall, charging eight people. Two of them were remanded in custody: flat commission chairman Otakar Bradac (ODS) and real estate agency executive Zdenek Cervinka.
