The scandal around the abuse of VZ contributed to the fall of Necas’s cabinet in June 2013. Photo credit: Vlada.cz
Prague, Feb 1 (CTK) – A Czech court imposed a one-year suspended sentence and a fine of CZK 100,000 on former prime minister Petr Necas (ODS) for giving false testimony for the benefit of his wife Jana.
Necas pleaded not guilty and insisted he had told the truth as a witness in the case of abuse of military Intelligence. He said he had asked Jana Nagyova, then the head of his office, to mediate his assistance from the intelligence service (VZ), as he felt concerned for his safety.
The courts, nevertheless, previously ruled that it was only Nagyova who had tasked the VZ officers to shadow Radka Necasova, the PM’s then wife, in order to use the information discovered for her own benefit.
“True, he may have felt apprehensions, but…subsequently he made a false testimony,” Prague 1 District Court judge Ondrej Lazna said today, calling Necas’s conduct a typical case of perjury.
The scandal around the abuse of VZ contributed to the fall of Necas’s cabinet in June 2013. It turned out that Nagyova, who was Necas’s lover, and whom he later married, had unlawfully ordered the VZ officers to shadow Radka Necasova and two officials of the Government Office.
The prosecution says Necas gave false testimony in court twice, in April 2015 and September 2017. Based on his testimony, the courts originally acquitted Nagyova (now Necasova).
In the latest court proceedings, Necas said that as a high constitutional official he and his family had faced various types of threats. He said that as the prime minister he refused to be protected by bodyguards, to save public finances.
He said his concerns about being followed arose shortly after his visit to Afghanistan, and in connection with some suspicious practices accompanying the Czech purchase of Gripen fighters.
“I saw this being connected with security issues. That is also why I turned to Military Intelligence,” he said, adding that his current wife only played the role of a communication channel.
Necas called the whole VZ case political and said its aim had been to topple his cabinet.
The courts imposed a three-year suspended sentence with five-year probation on Necasova for abuse of the VZ and banned her from high state administration posts for ten years.
President Milos Zeman recently granted a pardon to Necasova, forgiving the rest of her probation period.
