Former finance minister sent to prison

A Czech court of appeal has sent the former finance minister Ivo Svoboda and his close aide Barbora Snopkova to five years in prison for fraud. They were found guilty of having unlawfully transferred 6.5 million crowns to their own private companies from the now bankrupt pram manufacturer Liberta while they were on its board of directors. Svoboda is the first former cabinet minister to be served a prison sentence since the fall of communism.