Check uncovers 15 former secret police collaborators at Czech police headquarters

A check of 874 clearance certificates, which was ordered by the Civic Democrat Interior Minister Ivan Langer, has revealed that 15 current employees at police headquarters collaborated with the former communist secret police before 1989, a spokesman with the Interior Ministry told the Czech Press Agency on Wednesday. The minister had ordered the check in reaction to the fact that in February the head of Czech Interpol Pavol Mihal was exposed as a former collaborator with the communist secret police despite being issued with a clearance certificate after undergoing a screening process known as "lustration". Mihal had obtained a lustration certificate by simply changing the spelling of his name slightly. People wishing to hold senior positions in the state administration must obtain a clearance certificate before taking up their post. Clearance is supposed to be denied to anyone who worked or collaborated with the communist secret police, who held a senior position in the Czechoslovak Communist Party or who was a member of the communist "People's Militia".

Author: Coilin O'Connor