Czech anti-corruption police continue investigating Gripen case

Posted on: Feb. 26th, 2007 || Source: ceskenoviny.cz | E-mail Article | Print Article

Prague- The Czech anti-corruption police continue investigating the circumstances of the lease of Swedish Gripen fighters for the air force, spokeswoman for the squad for uncovering corruption and financial crime Alena Vokrackova said.

She said that new, previously unknown and unverified facts and new claims by persons concerned have appeared in the case.

The first planned purchase of 24 planes made by British BAE Systems in cooperation with Swedish Saab for 60.2 billion crowns was scrapped over the devastating floods in the Czech Republic in 2002.

The subsequent lease of 14 Gripens to the Czech air force for 10 years, signed in 2004, materialised in 2005. The contract cost 20 billion Czech crowns.

According to a reportage by Swedish Television on Tuesday last week, unclear payments and corruption worth billions of crowns accompanied both the planned sale and the lease.

A corrupt offer was allegedly made to then Czech senator Michael Zantovsky (Civic Democratic Alliance, ODA) when the Gripen negotiations were conducted.

Zantovsky, now ambassador to Israel, filed a criminal complaint on suspicion of bribery, but the police shelved the case in 2003 because they did not ascertain the perpetrator.

The anti-corruption police, however, have not quit the case. They cooperate with British law enforcement bodies and with Swedish journalists, Vokrackova said.

($1=21.565 crowns)
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