Final Word from Tuesday, August 7, 2018

The media widely reported late last week that Zdeněk Bakala is refusing to appear before the OKD commission on Aug. 14, and they dutifully mentioned his reasons for this. At least two of the nine members of the commission are demonstrably biased, Bakala wrote, and he named Chair Lukáš Černohorský of the Pirates and Václav Klaus Jr. of ODS. What the media largely failed to mention is that Bakala is right this time. Černohorský, and to a much lesser extent Klaus, has made public statements that allow Bakala to argue convincingly that his "right to a fair trial has been irreversibly violated by the political realm." Černohorský has posed as a big defender of OKD justice, yet he has potentially given Bakala a get-out-of-jail-free card. It's vaguely reminiscent of the way nefarious lawyers conspire with the ÚOHS antitrust office to make a procedural error in evaluating a cartel so that a court must then strike down the huge fines imposed by that very antitrust office. [Czech Republic privatization Parliament investigative]