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Czech Senate to look into charging President Zeman with treason over remarks on Vrbetice

According to the Senate, the head of state declassified information on the investigation that was not supposed to be disclosed
Czech Republic's President Milos Zeman EPA-EFE/MARTIN DIVISEK
Czech Republic's President Milos Zeman
© EPA-EFE/MARTIN DIVISEK

PRAGUE, April 26. /TASS/. The Senate (upper chamber) of the Czech Parliament will look into charging President Milos Zeman with treason over the remarks he made Sunday in his televised address to the nation regarding the Vrbetice incident, Czech media reported Monday citing Senate Speaker Milos Vystrcil.

According to the Senate, the head of state declassified information on the investigation that was not supposed to be disclosed.

"We will work on the option to file a constitutional complaint over suspicion of treason [allegedly committed by the president]," Vystrcil said. "Right now, we must gather the required information and hear the experts [on constitutional law] over the emerged situation."

The speaker disclosed that the Republic had already begun gathering signatures under a petition to the Senate demanding that the constitutional complaint to charge Zeman with treason be filed. According to the petition’s authors, Zeman promoted interests of a foreign state at the expense of national interests.

On Sunday, Zeman stated that, besides the foreign sabotage version, the investigation also reviews the version of munitions mishandling, which led to spontaneous detonation. The president speculated that the entire ongoing scandal may be a game of intelligence agencies.

On April 17, Czech authorities claimed that Moscow was involved in the 2014 incident, which killed two, and expelled 18 Russian embassy employees, calling them intelligence officers. The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed its decisive protest and expelled 20 Czech embassy employees in a reciprocal move.