{"id":56057,"date":"2019-08-16T10:37:38","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T08:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.josefbecvar.com\/?p=56057"},"modified":"2020-04-16T22:22:52","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T20:22:52","slug":"byvaly-sef-armady-becvar-hajil-u-soudu-porizeni-letounu-casa-stoprocentne-se-osvedcily-rekl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.josefbecvar.com\/en\/byvaly-sef-armady-becvar-hajil-u-soudu-porizeni-letounu-casa-stoprocentne-se-osvedcily-rekl\/","title":{"rendered":"The Former Commander of the Czech Army, Josef Be\u010dv\u00e1\u0159, Defended the Acquisition of CASA Aircraft in Court. They Proved to Be Perfect, He Said"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The former Chief of the General Staff, Josef Be\u010dv\u00e1\u0159, testified for the defence in the trial concerning the Czech Army\u00b4s CASA aircraft acquisition. He said that the planes proved to be perfect when used in The Czech Republic and on foreign missions. He does not recall having noticed any reservations concerning the price or anything else when the purchase was being negotiated. However, prosecutor Jan Ko\u0159\u00e1n confronted him with a written statement in which Be\u010dv\u00e1\u0159 refused to recommend purchasing the CASA aircraft.<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”30px”][vc_single_image image=”56058″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”link_image”][vc_column_text el_class=”popisfoto”]The former Chief of the General Staff defended the purchase of this aircraft in court.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”30px”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In April 2009, the Czech government, led by Mirek Topol\u00e1nek (ODS), decided to purchase four CASA transport aircraft for more than CZK 3.5 billion. It was after the cabinet had lost a no-confidence vote, which made Topol\u00e1nek resign as prime minister. The then Minister of Defence Vlasta Parkanov\u00e1 (KDU-\u010cSL, TOP 09) and the then deputy minister for armaments and acquisition Ji\u0159\u00ed Stan\u011bk are accused of not verifying the appropriate price of the aircraft and thus causing a loss of CZK 819 million to the state.<\/p>\n

Back then, Be\u010dv\u00e1\u0159 served as Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Director of the Force Development Division of the Ministry of Defence. “As far as I can remember, I did not notice any pressure from Minister Parkanov\u00e1 regarding the CASA aircraft purchase,” he said at the District Court of Prague 6 when asked by Stan\u011bk’s lawyer. He also claimed that he didn\u2019t recall noticing any reservations over the purchase.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CASA aircraft have been used both in the Czech Republic and on foreign missions. I think they proved to be perfect. When I was Chief of General Staff, there were even plans to buy two more planes of this type,\u201d said Be\u010dv\u00e1\u0159, who held that post from 2015 to 2018. Indeed, the Ministry of Defence recently informed the government of its intention to purchase two new CASA C-295MW transport aircraft for CZK 2.3 billion excluding VAT.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”30px”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

A controversial document was presented by the prosecution<\/h3>\n

Prosecutor Ko\u0159\u00e1n said that Be\u010dv\u00e1\u0159 was not telling the truth when claiming he was not aware of any objections raised against the aircraft acquisition. Ko\u0159\u00e1n presented a document dating from March 2008, in which Be\u010dv\u00e1\u0159 refuses to recommend the purchase. Be\u010dv\u00e1\u0159 replied that it had happened more than ten years ago and he couldn\u2019t recall why he had not supported the purchase at that time. However, he noted that this had not been his personal opinion, but an opinion issued by a dedicated department, which he signed as head of the division.<\/p>\n

Stan\u011bk called the document \u201ctotally irrelevant\u201d. According to him, there were multiple opinions on the issue and they were gradually changing, until the contract was concluded in May 2009.<\/p>\n

Other defence witnesses \u2013included Ale\u0161 Opata, incumbent Chief of the General Staff, and Vladim\u00edr Lo\u017eek, former director of the Internal Audit and Inspection Department of the Ministry of Defence and former Commander of the Military Police. Just like Be\u010dv\u00e1\u0159, they stated that they had not noticed any pressure or reservations concerning the purchase.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy that time, I had been in the army for over 30 years. I had a lot of friends at the Kbely air base. I guess would have noticed such a thing,\u201d Lo\u017eek says. \u201cToday, the CASA fleet has more than 14,500 flying hours. Our experience with the aircraft is good. This is also evidenced by their long-term deployment in Operation Sinai,\u201d said Opata.<\/p>\n

Stan\u011bk and Parkanov\u00e1, who were not present at the hearing, plead not guilty. Both are facing up to ten years in prison over abuse of power and breach of trust. Stan\u011bk has previously stated that the Ministry had followed the standard procedure when deciding about the aircraft purchase, just like in the case of other public contracts.<\/p>\n

Several government colleagues of Vlasta Parkanov\u00e1 testified for the defence, including Petr Ne\u010das (ODS), then Minister of Labour and later Prime Minister, and Miroslav Kalousek (TOP 09), former Finance Minister. Ne\u010das pointed out that the purchase was a political decision made by the entire Cabinet, not by the Minister of Defence or her department. Kalousek said that Parkanov\u00e1 had no legal duty (and no opportunity) to commission an expert report regarding the aircraft price.<\/p>\n

The case has dragged on for four years and it is not even halfway through. The prosecution asked the court to speed up the proceedings before the statute of limitations expires. Also, there is a risk that the judge will not be able to finish the case before she retires, in which case the entire trial would have to be repeated. The court has not yet issued a statement regarding the delays. The trial is further complicated by the fact that some witnesses repeatedly failed to appear in court.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”30px”][vc_column_text]Source: https:\/\/ct24.ceskatelevize.cz\/domaci\/2895578-byvaly-sef-armady-becvar-hajil-u-soudu-porizeni-letounu-casa-stoprocentne-se<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The former Chief of the General Staff, Josef Be\u010dv\u00e1\u0159, testified for the defence in the trial concerning the Czech Army\u00b4s CASA aircraft acquisition. He said that the planes proved to be perfect when used in The Czech Republic and on foreign missions. He does not recall having noticed any reservations concerning the price or anything…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[379],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josefbecvar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josefbecvar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josefbecvar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josefbecvar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josefbecvar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.josefbecvar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josefbecvar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josefbecvar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josefbecvar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josefbecvar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}