Ex-Czech prime minister Petr Necas weds chief of staff who disgraced him
Ex-PM secretly weds former chief of staff whose corruption charges forced him to quit; some see ploy to avoid her incriminating him
Eluding frenzied Czech media, the disgraced former prime minister of the Czech Republic, Petr Necas, and his onetime chief of staff were married in a secret ceremony at the weekend, Czech media reported.
With the couple ensnared in the most exhaustive anti-corruption sting operation in the Czech Republic since the fall of Communism, their marriage on Saturday was variously viewed by observers as a misguided love story or a cynical ploy to avoid prosecution.
In June, Necas, 48, once nicknamed "Mr Clean Hands" for his anti-corruption campaigning, was forced to resign after his chief of staff and mistress, Jana Nagyova, was charged with abuse of office for using the country's secret intelligence service to spy on Necas' wife, whom he divorced in August. Nagyova was also accused of trying to bribe three members of Parliament, who opposed a government austerity plan, with offers of posts in state-owned companies.
Prosecutors have been seeking to prove that Necas, a churchgoing father of four, was also involved in bribing members of Parliament.
But on Tuesday, Nagyova dealt prosecutors a blow when she walked into a police station in Prague and introduced herself as Mrs Jana Necasova, her lawyer, Eduard Bruna, told the Czech media. Under Czech law, family members cannot be compelled to testify against one another, and analysts said this could make it difficult for prosecutors to prove that any order to offer bribes came from the former prime minister.
"The heart of the bribery case has been whether she was acting alone or on behalf of Mr Necas, and now it will be very difficult to prove whether he was giving her directions," said Jaroslav Plesl, deputy editor of Tyden, a leading political magazine.