Final Word from Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Deputy Justice Minister Jiří Vyvadil said yesterday that he's not very good at dates, so we'll help him. On Dec. 23, Vyvadil's close friend, Prague Judge Petr Novák, issued an arrest warrant for Tomáš Pitr of Setuza. On Jan. 5, Novák canceled the warrant after Pitr returned to the CR from abroad and agreed to play ball. On Jan. 16, PPF acquired an option to buy Český olej, which owns Setuza. That same day, Pitr met secretly with Vyvadil, with Jiří Paroubek's prior knowledge, and Pitr told him he was prepared to take any steps necessary to remove potential obstacles to a deal between PPF and the government regarding Setuza. On Jan. 25, a hit man killed Pitr's partner, František Mrázek, who allegedly wanted to sell Setuza to someone else, Andrej Babiš. On Feb. 21, the question arose whether Vyvadil - and consequently Paroubek - knew how Pitr planned to remove the potential obstacles.[Czech Republic municipal court murder Agrofert premier prime minister ČSSD]