Prague, March 27 (CTK) – Ronald Adams, former U.S. director of the Czech-based Tatra lorry marker, wants Prague to pay him five million crowns in compensation for the prosecution he faced over suspected bribery, which he says adversely affected his personal and professional reputation, Bison& Rose agency told CTK yesterday.
Bison & Rose, which represents Adams, said he wants to give the compensation sum to non-profit organisations that fight corruption in the state administration.
Adams, Tatra’s former director general and head of the board of directors, was charged with bribe giving in August 2012.
A court definitively acquitted him last year.
The police suspected Adams of offering a bribe to the then Czech deputy defence minister Martin Bartak in 2009 in exchange for the ministry ordering a further supply of Tatra products to the Czech military.
In Bison & Rose’s press statement yesterday, Adams points to the court having clearly said neither the police nor the state attorney could exactly define what crime he committed and how he did it, and that the state attorney’s office should not have filed an action against him.
As a result, all harassment and restrictions to which he was exposed during the investigation, detention and the court proceedings were unnecessary and unrightful, Adams adds.
He says the indictment and prosecution leant exclusively on untrustworthy testimonies of people who face criminal prosecution themselves.
His detention, prosecution and trial were based on a purely expedient criminal complaint, Adams said.
It was Bartak who accused Adams of corruption.
Adams is a witness in the case of the state purchase of Tatra lorries for the Czech military, in which Bartak and Czech lobbyist and arms dealer Michal Smrz face attempted fraud charges.
Earlier this year, Adams told the court that, Smrz offered him help in promoting the order in exchange for 100 million crowns in 2008.
Smrz promised to arrange a meeting of Adams and the then Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek, Adams said.
($1=19.900 crowns)