The internal control office of the Czech police will review the steps taken by police officers during the Wednesday visit of MP and former prime minister Andrej Babis (ANO) to Cesky Krumlov, as ordered by Police President Martin Vondrasek. The Czech Police announced the news on Twitter.
The police authority is thus responding to a video recording released on the Czech news server Forum24, showing two plain-clothes police officers taking a woman away into an unmarked car in Cesky Krumlov.
Babis met with loud protests from opponents during his visits to Cesky Krumlov and nearby Frymburk on Wednesday. Similar protests were staged in Trebon, south Bohemia, on Tuesday. This meeting had to be interrupted due to a report on a planned assassination, but Prague detectives found out that the information was untrue, the police tweeted today.
“Before what the video shots show, the woman physically attacked a plain-clothes policeman,” the police said. The police have already questioned the detained woman and launched criminal proceedings on suspicion of misdemeanour. She was released immediately after the questioning, police headquarters spokesman Ondrej Moravcik told CTK today.
The woman told Forum24 that she hit a man who was pushing her, unaware that he was a plain-clothes police officer.
Moravcik justified the police presence at the rally, saying: “It is common that we monitor those events that we assess as a risk, regardless of who the organiser is. Public meetings with Andrej Babis fall into this category as conflicts occur there from time to time. Based on my own experience, plain-clothes police officers are commonly in the crowd even during absolutely calm events.”
The police internal control office will look into the actions and tactics of the police during the event in Krumlov to dispel any doubts, the police added.
Babis is touring the Czech Republic in a caravan. However, he denies this is part of a campaign ahead of the presidential election to be held in early 2023. He claims he is touring the regions as the leader of ANO within the movement’s campaign for the autumn Senate and local elections.
Babis said in late June that he would probably announce the decision on his presidential candidacy on 4 November.
