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Cunek returns to govt after settling dispute with ForMin - PM ... them of manipulating cases, including last year's investigation of Cunek, deputy prime minister and head of the junior governing Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), for suspected corruption. Earlier this week Prague Regional Court judge Vojtech Cepl decided that Benesova need not apology to the complainants. "I've never yielded to any pressures or lies, and I won't do so now either," Vesecka said when asked whether she intends to resign as supreme state attorney. She said the explanation of the verdict by Cepl contains serious mistakes and is expedient. "It is clear from the explanation...that the court, when handling our lawsuit, dealt neither with legal aspects of the lawsuit seeking the protection of our personal rights nor with legal aspects of the Cunek case, but aimed to return the Cunek case to the political battlefield," Vesecka said. She protested against Cepl's statement that a group of senior judicial officials had repeatedly met last year and exchanged information about Cunek's case which they should not have exchanged. According to Cepl, the meetings took place on the initiative of certain state attorneys and they were attended by persons who had nothing to do with the Cunek case. They actually inadmissibly interfered in the case and could have influenced it, Cepl said. One of the meetings was also attended by Vesecka. During the court session, one of the participants in the meetings, Zlatuse Andelova, superior of state attorney Radim Obst who supervised the Cunek case, testified that pressure had been exerted on her to protract the case, and she had been told [by Supreme Court deputy chairman Pavel Kucera] that independence of judiciary must give in to political interests in this case. Some observers say the government feared destabilisation if criminal charges were brought against Cunek. Nor does Vesecka agree with Cepl's opinion that she circumvented the Constitution by taking the supervision of the Cunek case from north Moravian Prerov district state attorney Radim Obst and transferring it to Arif Salichov, a district attorney in Jihlava, south Moravia, last June, she said. Salichov eventually decided not to bring corruption charges against Cunek and he halted his prosecution. Vesecka said the Constitution prevents cases from being transferred from one judge to another without cogent reasons, but the rule does not apply to state attorneys or police investigators. "The judge always remained the same, seated in Vsetin, north Moravia," Vesecka pointed out. The opposition demands Vesecka's departure from her post. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek (Civic Democrats, ODS) today said there is no reason for Vesecka to be dismissed. "This would have to be proposed by the justice minister [Jiri Pospisil, ODS], which I don't advise him to do," he said on Czech Television. Martin Bursik, head of the junior ruling Greens (SZ), said he would prefer it if Vesecka left her post. On the other hand, he said he understands Topolanek and Pospisil's decision to wait for the final court verdict. Vesecka and her colleagues who lost the dispute to Benesova are expected to appeal the Regional Court decision.
(Ceske Noviny)
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