Kolarik left his post at the Interior Ministry a few weeks ago, citing personal reasons. Credit: Freepik.
Prague, July 29 (CTK) – Police are investigating the case of former Deputy Interior Minister and former Pirate MP Lukas Kolarik, who has been accused of physical assault by his former assistant, according to reports in Seznam Zpravy yesterday.
At a Pirate Party forum on Thursday, Kolarik asked for his party membership to be suspended. The party’s board will discuss the matter on Sunday, wrote party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Bartos on Twitter.
Kolarik left his post at the Interior Ministry a few weeks ago, citing personal reasons. Denik N reported at the time that the departure was the result of a physical altercation that took place after an Interior Ministry event Kolarik attended. The former deputy confirmed the connection.
“My resignation is partly related to an incident in which my wife was physically assaulted and which I personally failed to deal with,” Kolarik told Denik N at the time. “The incident did not take place at an official Interior Ministry event and no criminal charges have been filed. I will not comment on it further in order to protect the privacy of my family.”
According to Seznam Zpravy, it was later revealed that the altercation was between him, his wife Jana, and his assistant with whom he was having an affair. According to the website, Kolarik later said in a non-public section of the Pirate forum that the assistant had entered their room, where she “beat his sleeping wife and hit her with her fists and other things that were at hand” and also threatened her with a knife.
Seznam Zpravy subsequently printed a statement from the assistant, who denied that she had threatened Kolarik’s wife with a knife and said Kolarik had struck her twice with his fist and kicked her several times on the floor after an argument.
Kolarik then responded to the website that he was acting in self-defence, and “there was only a punch, which was preceded by an unauthorised entry into the room in which we were sleeping, an armed assault on my wife and an assault on me.”
“On the basis of information in the public domain, Prague police have begun to conduct an investigation into the matter and to establish all the circumstances,” Prague police spokesman Jan Danek wrote to Seznam Zpravy. According to the website, the events took place on 1 June at the Spiritka hotel in Prague’s Brevnov district, which is an accommodation facility of the Interior Ministry.
Interior Minister Vit Rakusan (STAN) told Seznam Zpravy that his officials would look into the affair.
Kolarik asked the party forum to suspend his membership. “In view of the ongoing media scandal concerning my person, I am suspending my membership in the party because I do not want the party to be associated with it,” he said.
Bartos said the Pirates had taken the situation very seriously from the beginning and dealt with it.
