Czech president prompts outrage by pardoning associate

Czech President Milos Zeman on Wednesday pardoned an associate convicted of manipulating a public tender which and the decision has caused an outrage in the country.

In 2021, Milos Balak, the director of the forestry administration of the presidential residence in Lany, was sentenced to three years in prison due to irregularities in the awarding of a contract of around 8 million euros ($8.9 million) to a drainage company.

However, a presidential spokesperson justified the president’s decision by saying that Balak had no police record and that the harshness of the verdict had been politically motivated.

The leader of the Czech Pirate Party, Ivan Bartos, said that the pardon was borderline despotic, according to news agency CTK, while others referred to it as a slap in the face of the justice system.

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The presidential right to pardon is enshrined in Article 62 of the Czech constitution, but has been very rarely used, except occasionally in cases of severely ill convicts. (dpa/NAN)