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Czech Republic: President Zeman accuses his own secret service of surveillance

2021-08-23T10:13:59.685Z


Czech President Miloš Zeman suspects that his own secret service is targeting him because some of his closest employees are apparently being monitored. The authorities are silent.


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Miloš Zeman has been President of the Czech Republic since 2013.

From 1998 to 2002 he was Prime Minister

Photo: Ralf Hirschberger / dpa

Czech President Miloš Zeman has accused his own secret service of eavesdropping on people close to him - including himself. "When I talk to these employees on the phone, I am bugged too," the 76-year-old told the newspaper "Blesk" .

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš had promised him to stop this surveillance, but it was ongoing.

He learned this from a source in the domestic secret service BIS.

The BIS requires the approval of a court for telephone surveillance.

A spokesman for the secret service said there would be no comment on the president's claims.

The magazine "Respekt" referred to the close contacts of a Zeman consultant to Russia.

On trips to Moscow, he also met with the management of the Russian state nuclear company Rosatom.

Therefore, he could possibly have been targeted by the secret service.

Relations between the Czech Republic and Russia are tense.

Prague blames Russian agents for explosions in a Czech ammunition dump in 2014, in which two people were killed.

The Kremlin describes the allegations as untrue.

Because of the affair, both governments expelled each other's diplomats.

lukewarm / dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-08-23

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