Balaštíková case: head of Prague hygiene station charged

New suspects have emerged in the “capture” case in which former ANO MP Margita Balaštíková from Zlín is being prosecuted. According to journalists’ verified information, since last week police have also been pursuing the current head of the Prague hygiene station, Vladimír Možíšek, and Eva Sedláčková, the former head of the hygiene station in Zlín.

Detectives accuse Balaštíková and Možíšek of abuse of power by a public official. Sedláčková is charged with aiding and abetting (harbouring).

What was caught on tape

As journalists reported last summer, Balaštíková planned to destroy her husband’s company. In recordings her husband secretly made during a difficult divorce in 2023, she said she would “send ChemProgres to hell” precisely through inspections by Zlín hygiene officials. The station was then headed by director Sedláčková, and Vladimír Možíšek, who became director in Prague the year before last, was a senior employee there.

That story ended Balaštíková’s political career: she gave up her seat and announced that she would not run in the upcoming elections to the Chamber of Deputies.

In the recordings made three years ago, Balaštíková tells various people over the phone what she is plotting as revenge for her husband having found a new partner. “Once I have the divorce and the eviction, I’ll start sinking the company,” she says in a recording from 15 May 2023. In the same recording she explicitly mentions that inspections by various authorities, including the hygiene station, should harm the company. The Zlín hygiene station did later arrive at the company for an inspection and sent a request for inspections to other authorities.

Asked last year whether she had ordered inspections from the director of the Zlín hygiene station, Balaštíková said: “I don’t even know how I would have done that. Would I have called her? She would have told me to get lost.” The recordings also include a conversation with an unknown man whom she urges to kill the dog of her husband’s new girlfriend. Police announced several months later that no crime had been committed in the dog case.

What the accused and the ministry say

On Monday, Možíšek confirmed the charge. “I am innocent in this case and intend to prove it,” he said. Asked whether he would remain at the head of the Prague hygiene station, he did not answer.

The Ministry of Health is not planning any steps against Možíšek. “The director of the Regional Hygiene Station of the capital city of Prague has informed his superior about the start of criminal proceedings. At the moment we are respecting the presumption of innocence. If an indictment is filed, we are ready to act in accordance with the Civil Service Act,” said ministry spokeswoman Naďa Háttová.

Sedláčková, who now works as a doctor at the Luhačovice spa, did not answer calls on Monday. She left her post as director of the Regional Hygiene Station of the Zlín Region this spring, after a year of denying that she had done anything unlawful. Journalists had earlier found out that she hit and injured a motorcyclist with her official car and left the scene of the accident.

What evidence the police have against Možíšek and Sedláčková is unclear, as is how, in the investigators’ view, they were involved in the pressure on the company of the MP’s former husband. Lawyer Michal Pokorný of the Shields firm, who represents ChemProgres, confirmed that charges have been brought against three people, one of them Margita Balaštíková. He is not entitled to disclose the contents of the resolution on the start of criminal proceedings.

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz