He added that the court decided so to prevent Teryngel from influencing witnesses. Four people have been accused in the case.
Two have already been questioned. Teryngel is prosecuted in connection with several contracts he signed when he represented a certain company that then deprived the state of over 100 million crown in VAT, Doucha said previously. The fraud concerned a cigarette deal for almost 750 million crowns, the media reported. The police detained Teryngel on Wednesday morning. He pleads not guilty. Teryngel was a member of the then Czechoslovak Communist Party (KSC) and the Lidove milice communist paramilitary troops in the previous regime. After its collapse in 1989, he figured as a defence counsel in a number of media-highlighted cases. He, for instance, defended fugitive businessman Tomas Pitr, on whom an international arrest warrant has been issued over tax fraud, and General Ivo Zboril, former head of the president's military office, who was recently acquitted of embezzlement charges. Teryngel also represented the now senior opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) in a couple of cases. Teryngel was expelled from the Prague Bar Association in 2001 over his alleged unethical behaviour in the case of a disadvantageous leasing of the state Czech House in Moscow. Teryngel represented both sides in the dispute, the state and the leaseholder. However, a court later annulled the verdict of the professional body. ($1=15.574 crowns)
(Ceske Noviny)
more info >>
<< Back