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| Charges filed after Czech police sweep | Charges filed after Czech police sweep |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| Czech prosecutors have charged seven people after unprecedented raids on government and private offices by organised crime police. | Czech prosecutors have charged seven people after unprecedented raids on government and private offices by organised crime police. |
| A senior aide to Prime Minister Petr Necas was charged with offering bribes and abuse of office, prosecutors said. | |
| Two former MPs, an ex-minister and the current and former heads of military intelligence were also detained. | |
| Mr Necas has said neither he nor his colleagues did anything wrong. | |
| Detectives from the country's organised crime unit told reporters that the aide, Jana Nagyova, was suspected of bribing the former MPs with posts in state-owned firms in exchange for giving up their parliamentary seats. | |
| The two were formerly opponents of the prime minister. At one point they threatened to bring down his government over VAT increases. They later stood down. | |
| Spying charge | |
| Ms Nagyova, who is head of the prime minister's office, is also suspected of illegally ordering military intelligence to spy on three people. One of these is said to be Mr Necas's estranged wife. | |
| The prime minister has defended his colleague and says the accusations against her are baseless. He has also criticised the nature of the raids, saying they damaged the reputation of the Czech Republic abroad. | |
| Armed police in balaclavas began raiding a number of government offices and businesses on Wednesday night. The raids continued into Thursday. So far eight people have arrested, with seven charged. Documents, money and even gold has been seized in an operation involving up to 400 officers. | |
| Mr Necas told parliament on Friday he refused to step down over the affair, saying he had done nothing wrong. However commentators say fresh allegations potentially implicating him in the bribery affair could be highly damaging, and the situation in Prague is changing hour by hour. | |
| The anti-organised crime unit say there could be more arrests within hours. |