Prague, March 30, (dpa/GNA) – The decision by President Milos Zeman to pardon one of his closest associates has caused a wave of outrage.
Several ministers demanded a budget cut for the presidential office on Wednesday.
The leader of the Czech Pirate Party, Ivan Bartos, said that disregard for the decision of the court was borderline despotic, according to news agency CTK, while others referred to it as a slap in the face of justice system.
The director of the forest administration of the presidential residence in Lany, Milos Balak, had been sentenced to three years due to irregularities in the awarding of a contract of around €8 million ($8.9 million) to a drainage company.
A spokesperson for the president justified the pardon by saying that Balak has no police record, and suggesting the harshness of the verdict was politically motivated.
The official residence of the president is Prague Castle, but Zeman has been spending a large amount of time in the Baroque castle of Lany, to the west of the capital.
The castle has expansive gardens and 30 square kilometres of forest and hunting grounds, which are largely private.
Zeman’s second term in office is due to end in a year. A successor will presumably be determined in January.
The presidential right to pardon is enshrined in Article 62 of the Czech constitution, but it is very rarely used, except occasionally in cases of severely ill convicts.
The German constitution also grants the right to pardon the president.
GNA