Current Affairs Kubice report challenged by Supreme State Attorney's Office

Jan Kubice Last June -just days ahead of the country's parliamentary elections the head of the Office for Investigation of Organized Crime Jan Kubice dropped a bombshell. He told a parliamentary committee that the outgoing Social Democrat prime minister, Jiri Paroubek, and other top officials had hindered his unit's work in order to shield party colleagues and that criminals had infiltrated the civil service. Evidence supporting the charges was not made public. The news caused an uproar and a special team was set up at the Supreme State Attorney's Office to investigate the claims. Its spokeswoman Irena Valova said on Tuesday that none of the allegations made in the Kubice report had been confirmed.

"In none of the cases mentioned was the supervising state attorney contacted by anyone with the intention of influencing the criminal proceedings, nor was there any attempt to influence the work of the police."

Ivan Langer, photo: CTK Social Democrat leader Jiri Paroubek, who claimed from the start that the allegations had been fabricated in order to damage his party in the general elections, is now calling for the head of Interior Minister Ivan Langer, who is believed to have been responsible for leaking news of the confidential report to the press.

" Minister Langer should resign because it is quite evident that the men behind this affair - which we can justifiably call "Langergate" are Ivan Langer and his party colleague Jan Vidim."

Social Democrats in the lower house on Tuesday called for a public apology from Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, saying that this was his chance to prove he was a man of honour. The prime minister says he'll study the report first and see if there is anything to apologize for. Like many of his party colleagues he remains skeptical with regard to the outcome of the investigation - and says that many things remain unexplained in particular the high number of wiretappings that were ordered during the Social Democrats second term in office.

Jiri Paroubek, photo: CTK "When I have read the report I will take a stand. I do not think that all the allegations have been addressed. And I personally think that one of the most serious findings was that as prime minister Jiri Paroubek could look into transcribed wiretappings and be privy to conversations between his rivals and even their children. I have no idea why he would need to do that."

It has now been eleven months since the Kubice report hit the headlines and public interest in it has gradually fizzled out. But the Social Democrats are determined to bring it back to the limelight and clear their name as publicly as possible. With the help of the Communist Party they have put the issue on the agenda of Parliament's upcoming session at which the prime minister can expect to be grilled about why the Kubice report appeared and was "accidentally" leaked to the press just four days ahead of the general elections.