Czech justice minister resigns after accepting €40 million in bitcoin from convicted criminal
The scandal began with a tweet from the ministry, which boasted, on Wednesday, on X, that it had auctioned off nearly 500 bitcoins two days earlier, raising close to 1 billion Czech koruna (about €40 million). According to Blazek, the money was meant to help fund the digitization of the justice system, fight drug use in prisons, and provide housing for prison staff.
But a major problem was quickly pointed out by Denik N. On Thursday, the news site revealed that the bitcoins were donated by Tomas Jirikovsky, a notorious criminal convicted in 2017 of "embezzlement, drug trafficking, and illegal possession of weapons." He had been found guilty of running Sheep Marketplace, a marketplace on the dark web known for dealing illegal products.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
4 days ago
- Euronews
China cuts ties with Czech president over meeting with Dalai Lama
China says it has suspended all ties with Czech President Petr Pavel over his recent meeting with the Dalai Lama, further straining relations between Beijing and Prague. During a private trip to India last month, Pavel met the exiled Tibetan leader to congratulate him on his 90th birthday. The Dalai Lama has been living in the Himalayan town of Dharamshala since fleeing Chinese rule in Tibet in 1959. Beijing sees Tibet as part of its territory and accuses the spiritual leader of being a separatist. The meeting "seriously contravenes the political commitment made by the Czech government to the Chinese government, and harms China's sovereignty and territorial integrity," the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. "China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this, and has lodged serious protests with the Czech side. In light of the severity of Pavel's provocative action, China decides to cease all engagement with him," it added. The Czech presidential office did not immediately respond to Beijing's statement. Prior to the meeting, the office said the Dalai Lama had invited Pavel to visit and that no one from Prague had accompanied him to India. "President Pavel took the opportunity to separate from the delegation during his return from a working visit to Japan to personally congratulate the Dalai Lama," the presidential office said last month. The Czech presidency is a largely ceremonial but prestigious post. Late Czech President Vaclav Havel, the nation's first post-communist leader, was a friend of the Dalai Lama. Ties between China and the Czech Republic have deteriorated in recent years. Shortly after his election as Czech president in January 2023, Pavel angered Beijing by having a phone call with Taiwan's then-president Tsai Ing-wen. The Czech Republic, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but it maintains robust informal contacts with the self-governing democracy, which Beijing views as its own territory despite Taipei's rejection.
Euronews
29-07-2025
- Euronews
Lead MEP says EU should skip 2040 emissions targets
The EU's 2040 emission reduction target is 'simply not necessary' and should be rejected, the Czech MEP responsible for steering the proposal through the Parliament has told Euronews in an interview. Ondrej Knotek is a member of the far-right Patriots for Europe (PfE) group and was appointed as rapporteur to steer through the Parliament a Climate Law amendment setting the 2040 goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The European Commission formally proposed a 90% carbon emissions reduction target by 2040 in an amendment to its Climate Law earlier in July, as a pathway to achieving zero emissions by 2050. Knotek said that when drafting the Parliament's position on the file in the Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety (ENVI), he will push to reject the Commission's proposal entirely, without proposing any alternative emissions reduction target. 'The 2040 target is an addition to the two existing targets, that is simply not necessary,' he said, referring to the EU's final goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2050 and the intermediate target of a 55% reduction by 2030. Knotek believes the EU has already done much more than its global competitors to combat global warming, and argues that the risks for the European economy and citizens are 'much higher' than the potential contributions to global climate change mitigation. 'Let's wait for the others to have the same two legally binding targets, let's wait for the others to have this third target, and then we can accompany. No one says that Europe needs to be the flagship,' he said. Beyond the 2040 target, Knotek also challenges the entire Green Deal, the EU's long-term plan to reach climate neutrality by 2050. 'The target as such looked realistic in 2020, but now, after five years, we know that very probably it is not so much realistic,' he said, calling for a 'strong recalibration' of the EU's commitments. 'The correct reaction to the climate change is to reduce the emissions in a sustainable, and even slow way [...] We don't have to invest into faster reduction of emissions, but into the so-called adaptation to the climate change. The role of adaptation should be much higher than the reduction of greenhouse gases.' A clash foreseen on the Climate Law Ondrej Knotek will be supported by his political group, PfE, which strongly opposes EU climate action, and likely by other right-wing parties in Parliament. But dismantling this signature EU climate policy will not be an easy task. Knotek's appointment, which results from a complex allotment system giving large groups control over important files, has already triggered backlash from leftist and centrist members of Parliament. Socialists and Democrats, Renew Europe, the Greens/EFA, and The Left will advocate for maintaining the 2040 target. Therefore, the Parliament's position on the file will depend on the choice of the largest group, the European People's Party (EPP). 'EPP MEPs are split on this issue. I am convinced that if they are left to vote freely, the majority of them would be against the 2040 target,' Knotek said. The Czech MEP believes his EPP colleagues will follow the direction of their leader, Manfred Weber. 'In the EPP, if you do not follow the line, you are sidelined and do not get any missions. So, if there would be a secret vote, they could distract, otherwise they stick to the line.' Knotek's report will be voted in the ENVI committee on September 23. Others MEPs from the same committee have until September 8 to add amendments. Parliament's plenary session has then to confirm the outcome in the second week of October. After the vote in Parliament, however, the provision must be negotiated with the EU's 27 member states, which are set to adopt a common position in the Council. Some including France and Poland have already expressed scepticism about the proposal. The timing of negotiations is sensitive, as the Commission hoped to have the 2040 target enshrined in law ahead of the COP30 international climate conference in Brazil, which takes place in November.
Euronews
18-07-2025
- Euronews
Czech president signs law criminalising communist propaganda
The president of the Czech Republic has signed an amendment to the criminal code that criminalises the promotion of communist propaganda, putting it on a similar level to Nazi ideology. The revised legislation signed by Petr Pavel allows judges to hand down prison sentences of up to five years for anyone who "establishes, supports or promotes Nazi, communist, or other movements which demonstrably aim to suppress human rights and freedoms or incite racial, ethnic, national, religious or class-based hatred." The changes follow calls from some Czech institutions, including the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, to correct what they described as an imbalance in the legal system. But the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), which is led by MEP Kateřina Konečná, condemned the move as politically motivated. "This is yet another failed attempt to push KSČM outside the law and intimidate critics of the current regime," the party said in a statement. It's not clear yet how the new law could be applied to legitimate political parties like KSČM. The party currently holds no seats in parliament, but recent polls put its "Stačilo" (Enough) alliance at 5%, which would be enough to see it return to the lower house in October's elections. The Czech Republic was part of the former Czechoslovakia and in post-WWII Europe came under the umbrella of the Soviet Union. It was led by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) until the 1989 Velvet Revolution brought an end to 41 years of one-party rule and ushered in a transition to a parliamentary republic. At the last election in 2021, the KSČM failed to win more than 5% of the vote, meaning the Czech parliament had no Communist delegates for the first time since 1920.
