Espionage charges for China: first case under new paragraph in Czech Republic
A state prosecutor has filed charges against a man accused of espionage for the Chinese intelligence service. This is the first prosecution of its kind in the Czech Republic.
Espionage charges for China: first case in the history of Czech criminal law
A state prosecutor has filed charges against a man accused of collaboration with the Chinese intelligence service, as confirmed to the iROZHLAS.cz server by Kateřina Eliášová, spokeswoman for the Prague Municipal Court. According to Czech news reports, this is the first case of prosecution for unauthorised activities on behalf of a foreign power in the Czech Republic.
"I can confirm that our court has received an indictment against the person in question. According to the indictment filed, the accused is alleged to have committed the offence of unauthorised activities on behalf of a foreign power. Given the current stage of proceedings, I cannot provide further details on the matter," stated Eliášová.
The man has been in detention since his arrest in January. The Criminal Code prescribes a sentence of up to five years' imprisonment for unauthorised activities on behalf of a foreign power in the basic sentencing range.
According to earlier information from the Seznam Zprávy server, the accused is a Prague correspondent for a Chinese daily newspaper, which is a media outlet of the Communist Party of China. He had been operating in the Czech Republic for a long time, with the Czech government repeatedly extending his journalist accreditation. According to the same server, the security services suspect him of deliberately gathering sensitive information during interviews with Czech and Slovak politicians.
According to the law, the offence of unauthorised activities on behalf of a foreign power is committed by anyone who works for a foreign state or organisation with the intention of endangering or harming the constitutional order, sovereignty, territorial integrity, defence, or security of the Czech Republic. The relevant provision came into force in February of last year.
The Constitutional Court examined the paragraph at the request of a group of senators who considered it too vague. The court rejected their motion in February.
The current government committed in its government programme to abolishing the criminal offence. According to the iROZHLAS.cz server, a working group was established in March at the Ministry of Justice with the task of preparing a new version of this paragraph.
Source: České noviny