Petr Necas: Czech prosecutors seek criminal charges against former prime minister

Czech prosecutors asked lawmakers on Monday to strip former Prime Minister Petr Necas of his immunity from prosecution over a bribery and spy scandal that toppled the government.

"On July 8… Speaker of Parliament Miroslava Nemcova received a request from High State Prosecutor Ivo Istvan for parliamentary consent to begin criminal proceedings against lawmaker Petr Necas," Nemcova's office said in a statement.

Necas, 48, quit as prime minister last month after his chief of staff and alleged lover, Jana Nagyova, was indicted for abuse of power and bribery. Seven other senior officials were also charged, including military intelligence heads and former lawmakers.

All but one are still in police custody.

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Prosecutors believe that Nagyova had military spies tail Necas's wife, who he has been married to for 25 years and is now divorcing.

While Necas is no longer prime minister, he is still a member of parliament, and with that position comes parliamentary immunity.

He denied on Monday that he offered lucrative posts in state-run companies to trouble-making lawmakers from his own party in exchange for their resignation. Nagyova and three other former lawmakers have already been indicted on those allegations.

"There was no deal on swapping the resignation as lawmaker for top posts," Necas said in a statement. "Political deals cannot be considered a crime… it's not clear to me what I should be accused of and why."

The Necas scandal was an unexpected by-product of a larger police investigation of graft in the Czech Republic, as prosecutors have become more willing to go after corruption in the EU member state in the past two years.