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| Charges against Prague Jewish leader dropped
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The Prague State Attorney's office has canceled a criminal complaint against former Prague Jewish Community Chairman Tomas Jelinek, who has been accused of abusing his position while chairman.
The State Attorney said that the police decision to launch a criminal investigation of Jelinek for misuse of personal data while in office and abusing his authority was "premature."
Jelinek, who is a candidate in the upcoming 6 November Jewish community elections for its 25-member representative board, had charged that the criminal accusations against him filed by his opponents were politically motivated. But a rival faction in the community argued that he committed serious infractions while in office.
Financial irregularities
The police claimed Jelinek had authorised the payment of half a million crowns (16,800 Euros) in defiance of the Jewish community's internal statutes.
According to Jakub Roth, vice president of the Prague Jewish community's current leadership, Jelinek hastily withdrew cash from the community's funds after he was dismissed as chairman last autumn. This money has not yet been accounted for, he has stated previously.
Police this year investigated six other criminal complaints filed against Jelinek.
The police dismissed five of them, all related to his financial or administrative responsibilities while in office, and forwarded the sixth to the Prague 1 municipal office for administrative adjudication.
According to the forwarded complaint, Jelinek allegedly attacked ushers at a session of the Czech Federation of Jewish Communities that he wanted to attend.
However, the case was dismissed by the Prague 1 authorities in October.
Dramatic Oust
Jelinek was ousted from his post last November at an extraordinary meeting of some 330 of the 1,500-member community, a decision Jelinek has never recognized as legally binding as he says it violated the community bylaws.
Those who sought his departure then elected their own leadership, who filed several complaints with the police about Jelinek, including that he had improperly used community member data by handing it over to a public relations agency without the members' consent.
The agency was allegedly headed by a former member of the Czechoslovak Secret Police, which raised the ire of Jelinek's opponents.
But perhaps the biggest bone of contention between Jelinek and his critics was his firing of Prague's Chief Rabbi, Karel Sidon, one of the pillars of the post-1989 Jewish community, who is a covert to orthodox Judaism. Sidon remains chief rabbi of the Czech Republic.
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