Police recommend charging 21 people for fixing Czech soccer matches

Police have offered to charge 21 people and one legal entity in a case involving the results of football matches. One of the prime suspects faces up to 12 years in prison, the National Center Against Organized Crime (NCOZ) has said. Former Football Association (FAČR) vice-president Roman Berbr is also facing charges in a case that also concerns the withdrawal of money from the Pilsen Regional Football Association. On Wednesday, the police headquarters sent a request recommending prosecution to the Prague public prosecutor’s office, which will decide what to do next. According to investigators, the perpetrators influenced the results of matches in the Second and Third Leagues. The police accuse them of bribery, bribery, embezzlement or participation in an organized criminal group.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Twitter that he will meet Pope Francis today at the Vatican. Fiala will present the pope with a shawl that Czech and Ukrainian women have sewn together, meant to symbolize peace and friendly relations between nations. The meeting with the head of the Catholic Church will take less than an hour. Fiala said he wanted to talk about the situation in Ukraine and the refugee crisis caused by the Russian invasion, as well as human rights and the upcoming Czech presidency. He will also invite the Pope to visit the Czech Republic.

The government will allow the opposition to submit amendments to the proposal for a one-time contribution of CZK 5,000 per child for families whose gross income for the last year does not exceed CZK 1 million. The deputies approved a method of discussing the law in the lower house. The Cabinet no longer asks for first reading approval, but only for discussion in a state of legislative emergency. With the advantage, the government wants to mitigate the effects of rising prices on families. Andrej Babiš, president of the opposition ANO last week, said families should receive the amount every month until the end of the year and that it should also apply to students under 26.

The European Parliament has approved a ban on the sale of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles with internal combustion engines from 2035. The measure should only apply to new cars, people should continue to be able to use vehicles older cars with internal combustion engines and continue to buy these cars on the second-hand market. The final legal text will now be drafted, and then environment ministers from EU members are expected to approve their version of the legislation at a summit in Luxembourg on June 28. The measure is part of an EU climate package intended to help the EU achieve carbon neutrality. by 2050.

The noxious fumes that sickened more than three dozen people in Jablonec nad Nisou came from an illegal methamphetamine lab. Samples from the building where the incident occurred were examined at the chemical laboratory of the Institute for Civil Protection in Lázně Bohdaneč. These showed the presence of solvents and other chemicals used to make methamphetamine. A resident of a sign-posted high-rise apartment reported the leak of an unknown irritant to emergency services on Tuesday evening. Rescuers then took 37 people to nearby hospitals. A forensic expert said whoever made the meth lacked ventilation and filters, so fumes filled the building.

The Court of Appeal handed down a three-year suspended sentence plus three years probation to the former head of the Prague Land Office, Eva Benešová, for her actions in the Bečvář farm restitution case . The Prague Metropolitan Court issued the same ruling last year, but the Supreme Court overturned the verdict. The appeal court significantly relaxed an earlier sentence that would have sent Benešová to jail for six years and fined him CZK 4.5 million. According to the indictment, Benešová and his subordinate Jan Horák illegally made the wrong decision in the restitution dispute, causing damages of at least CZK 1.4 billion.

Czechs’ confidence in the police and the army is increasing, with the former trusted by 79% of them and the latter by 73%, according to a CVVM poll carried out between March and May. In contrast, political parties are the least trusted institutions, with just under a fifth of Czechs trusting them. Trust in the police has climbed 9% since last August, reaching the highest level since the measurement began in 1994. In the case of the military, trust rose 4%, returning to 2020 levels. For the Internet, television, radios, NGOs, political parties, the press, distrust goes far beyond trust.

Farmers marched in Wenceslas Square in the afternoon to protest against the introduction of subsidies for small farmers. About an hour later, they arrived at the government office at Straka Academy in Malá Strana, where they continued their protest. Police estimated that around 2,000 people took part in the march. They carried banners, whistled, trumpeted, drummed and chanted. The police stopped traffic on the way.

The march was preceded in the morning by a meeting in the Great Hall in Lucerne. Czech Agrarian Chamber (AK ČR) President Jan Doležal told the crowd that many farmers would be on the brink of survival due to the new round of subsidies. He also said transferring money to small farmers would prevent medium and large enterprises from competing with businesses in neighboring countries.

Public sector unions are issuing a strike alert from June 9 to pressure the government to meet demands for pay rises to offset high inflation, the union spokesman said today from the public sector, Pavel Bednář, at ČTK. The strike alert will end when the government and public sector union leaders reach an agreement on pay adjustments, he said.

Unions demand that wage increases keep pace with inflation to preserve purchasing power. The government said it would decide on the date and level of wage increases within two weeks.

Computer maker Apple’s iOS 16 update includes a Czech-English dictionary among seven new additions to the existing 51. In addition to the meaning of Czech words, users will see gender, pattern and pronunciation, as well as their translation into English in several forms of usage, Smartmania.cz reported. Although a Czech version of Siri has been discussed for some time, this update has yet to be implemented.

The Czech National Museum will restore 20 precious objects from Syria dating from the Bronze Age and Antiquity, National Museum Director Michal Lukeš told journalists today in the museum’s restoration workshop in Terezín. The artifacts were transported from Damascus with the help of the Czech army, Lukeš added.

The collection contains bronze statuettes, a bronze pin from Ugarit and three relief sculptures from stone tombs from Palmyra. The restoration work will last a year, in the presence of Syrian experts. The restored objects will then be exhibited at the National Museum before being sent back to Syria.

Belarusian writer and 2015 Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich and Russian opposition intellectual Lyudmila Ulitskaya have canceled their participation in the 27th International Book Fair and Festival of the Book World in Prague to be held June 9-12, the organizers told reporters today. Alexievich will not be present for health reasons and Ulitskaya has decided to stay in Germany due to the ongoing processing of her asylum application. The Book World literary fair and festival will welcome guests from 35 countries and regions. Italy will be the guest of honor this year.

The Prague City Council has unanimously decided to purchase a new imaging system for the capital’s planetarium in Stromovka Park. The revolutionary system, which uses tens of millions of LEDs directly on the surface of the dome, in combination with one of the largest projection domes in the world, will make Planetarium Praha the best in the world, wrote planetarium director Jakub Rozehnal on Facebook. Only two similar installations exist, and both are on smaller domes. The city plans to invest CZK 250 million in the purchase, which still needs to be approved by all 65 members of the Prague Assembly.