The former mayor of Pardubice for the ANO movement, Martin Charvát, and the chairman of the Regional Chamber of Commerce, Jozef Koprivňanský, remain in custody. The court rejected their complaints, announced their lawyer Pavel Jelinek. Both men are accused in a case of manipulation of public contracts of Pardubice and its companies. Last week, former Pardubice deputy mayor Helena Dvořáčková (formerly ANO, now SPD) was released from custody.
“On Wednesday, the regional court ruled as an appeals body and rejected complaints against the detention. The situation will certainly not change before the end of the year,” Jelínek said.
Police accuse Dvořáčková and Charvát of wanting to influence who gets the contract to build the parking garage. According to media reports, they tried to eliminate the winner of the tender, Porr, by having an expert opinion prepared to prove that the promised construction period was unrealistically short. However, the expert opinion did not confirm this and Porr started building the parking house. The court sent the three accused to custody on November 23 so that they could not influence witnesses, the maximum length of stay in custody is three months.
Police charged 19 people and two companies after a large-scale raid on the Pardubice City Hall. Among them are Michal Drenko, then head of the Pardubice Development Fund and a councillor of the first city district, Aleš Kopecký, vice-chairman of the board of directors of the Pardubice City Services, and Pavel Nevečeřal, chairman of the fund’s board of directors. The others are Jaroslav Hruška, former head of the Property and Investment Department of the municipality, his successor Petr Škoda, who no longer works in the office, and Petr Hušek, a clerk of the Property and Investment Department of the Pardubice Municipality. Among the accused are representatives of construction companies. Among the legal entities, SBF Pardubice and KTS Integra Pardubice have been charged.
Pardubice removed Drenek, Kopecký, Nevečeřal and Dvořáčková, who was on the supervisory board of the Pardubice Development Fund, from their positions. Charvát resigned from all his positions, he was a councillor, a deputy and held positions in Pardubice waterworks and the fund.
The board of the ANO movement expelled Charvát and Drenek because of the case at the Pardubice town hall. Dvořáčková was a member of ANO in the past, but later resigned and entered the current town council as a non-party member on the SPD candidate list.
Source: CTK
