The deputy director of the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM), Jiří Malý, who, according to the media, is accused of extortion together with former IKEM director Michal Stibork, has resigned.
Czech Television’s information was confirmed by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, Ondřej Jakob, without further details.
Helena Rögnerová, the senior director of the Ministry’s Economics and Health Insurance Section, has been in charge of the hospital since the beginning of September. She said on Monday that she wants to familiarize herself with all the information on Tuesday and inform Minister Vlastimil Válek (TOP 09), who recommended that Malé be dismissed.
As reported by Nauzal, the charges relate to the pressure that Stiborek and Malý allegedly exerted on cardiac surgeon Jan Pirek and the head of the IKEM cardiovascular surgery clinic, Ivan Netuka. They suggested that they should have compromising materials on them.
Up to four years in prison
According to the police, if found guilty, the accused face up to four years in prison, and two are also banned from working.
Two people are facing extortion charges, while a third is being prosecuted for unauthorized access to a computer system and breach of confidentiality of documents. This is the head of the IT department at IKEM, Petr Raška. It has not yet been decided on his further stay in the hospital.
Stiborek resigned in mid-August, Válek first entrusted the leadership to Deputy Malý, who was his statutory representative. At the end of August, the National Central Office against Organized Crime (NCOZ) intervened in IKEM, dealing with possible manipulation of public contracts. At the beginning of September, Rögnerová was entrusted with the leadership of IKEM.
“Until it is clear who is innocent and who is guilty, there is no point in issuing a tender, because the investigation is apparently going on in great depth and concerns a number of people,” Válek told journalists on Monday.
The IKEM case
- In addition to being the head of the IKEM state hospital, Michal Stiborek ran a business with loans with high interest rates. According to him, he was lent tens of millions by a bailiff convicted of violence. At the same time, Stiborek lent through another man who is in prison today. It was revealed by Seznam Zprava in mid-August.
- In an interview with reporters, Stiborek first lied, then admitted the loan business. But he refused to specify how he obtained more than fifty million lending capital. He talked about loans from friend and family.
- IKEM is a top research center with an annual budget of around five billion. Some medical capacities have already been rebelling against the management methods of director Stibork since last year.
- Minister of Health Vlastimil Válek (TOP 09) first repeatedly defended Stiborek, but eventually pushed him to resign. The minister himself was under pressure from Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) and some of his own influential party members.
