Plaintiff in a Brno housing case has filed charges against a senior police officer for bribery

A plaintiff in a Brno housing case has filed charges against a senior police officer for bribery, saying the man wanted to obtain a city apartment for a relative in exchange for a CZK 360 000 bribe. The Olomouc High State Prosecutor's Office announced the news on its website today. Police are prosecuting several people in the case, including former chairman of the housing commission of the Brno-střed district and ODS politician Otakar Bradáč. This part of the investigation is still ongoing.

"According to the results of the preliminary proceedings, the accused was supposed to seek the unauthorised allocation of a city flat in Brno for his relative in the period 2021 and 2022 through a bribe of CZK 360,000. The accused is a senior member of the Police of the Czech Republic, and therefore the investigation was conducted by the General Inspectorate of Security Forces, but his position is not related to the prosecuted criminal activity," said chief prosecutor Radim Dragoun.

The officer's case is closely related to the case surrounding Bradac. "In this related criminal case, the defendants, as an organised criminal group, are accused of acting in a way that was intended to repeatedly allocate municipal flats in Brno illegally in exchange for bribes," Dragoun said.

Police officers intervened in Brno in October 2022 on suspicion of machinations with flats in the Brno-střed district. Eight people were detained. At that time, the Olomouc High State Prosecutor's Office initiated criminal proceedings against those involved for participation in an organised criminal group, accepting bribes for the benefit of the group and for abuse of official authority. Last February, the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office (SSP) cancelled the prosecution of two of them, but subsequently police began prosecuting three more people in the case.

In the second half of October 2022, police officers intervened in Brno for the second time, at the housing department of the municipality, at the Brno-sever, Brno-Černovice town hall, at the Černovice sandpit and at the office of the then outgoing deputy mayor and now environment minister Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL). Police are prosecuting nine people and three companies in the case surrounding the sand plant in Brno-Cernovice, but not Hladik.

A third case, loosely related to the previous cases, followed in November 2022, when criminal investigators suspected two women of unauthorised disposal of non-residential premises in a house in Brno's Hlinky district. Last February, the NSZ dropped their prosecution, but the police subsequently charged them again, along with two other people.

Source: CTK