Prosecutor withdraws charges against Governor Půta over failure to report bribery offer
A district prosecutor has halted criminal proceedings against Martin Půta. Police had accused him of failing to report an offer of a bribe.
Prosecutor withdraws charges against Governor Půta over failure to report bribery offer
District prosecutor Martina Dědková decided on Wednesday to discontinue criminal proceedings against Liberec Governor Martin Půta. The reason was an alleged concealment of a criminal act. Půta himself informed the public of the development on Thursday via the X network. The prosecutor later confirmed the decision with an addendum that the material is being returned to the criminal police for further investigation.
Police accused the governor in October of last year. According to investigators, he received an offer of a financial bribe, which he refused, but subsequently failed to inform the relevant authorities. Půta denied any wrongdoing from the outset.
"She found me right in that I was not obliged to report the alleged offer after I refused it. She stated that police had presented no evidence, despite monitoring all meetings in my office," Půta told the Aktuálně.cz server.
The governor is simultaneously dealing with a separate corruption scandal connected to contracts from the company Geotermální energie pro občany valued at a total of nearly one hundred million crowns. The courts have been handling the case since 2018. In May 2020, the regional court acquitted all twelve defendants including Půta, but the appeal court overturned the verdict. Last February, the regional court found Půta partially guilty of accepting a thirty-thousand-crown bribe in the form of a counter-service and imposed a suspended sentence and a monetary fine of fifty thousand crowns on him. The governor appealed against this, and the case was handed to a higher court this week.
Source: Aktuálně.cz
Source: Aktuálně.cz