Senator Puta wants to lose immunity in Czech bribery case

Newly elected senator Martin Puta is ready to give up his immunity in a corruption case. He said he would vote for his own extradition to criminal prosecution so that a court can reach a decision as soon as possible.

Even before the second round of the Senate elections, Puta wrote to the speaker of the upper house via a data box to say that, if elected, he would ask to be extradited. “I have been saying this for a long time, and I wanted to put it in writing so that these would not be mere promises: some citizens, unfortunately, do not trust politicians,” he told the ČTK news agency on Saturday.

In an interview with Czech Television, Puta added that he would in any case vote for his own extradition. “The whole case has been dragging on for more than 12 years, and I have no interest in prolonging it,” stressed the regional governor.

What Puta is accused of

Puta is named in a corruption case linked to two projects of the civic association “Geothermal Energy for Citizens” (GEPO). The projects, from 2012–2014, were worth almost 100 million crowns, and GEPO wanted to obtain European subsidies for them. In the end, none of the payments were made.

The trial has been under way since 2018. The regional court first acquitted Puta, but after an appeals court overturned the ruling in February last year, it found him partly guilty of abuse of power by an official and of accepting a bribe.

Verdict and appeal

Puta received a suspended sentence and a fine of 50,000 crowns for accepting a bribe of 30,000 crowns as a favor in return. The court held that an attempt to find a job for an acquaintance of his was tied to a promise to help change the funding of one problematic project in a European subsidy program. Puta appealed and called the verdict absurd and pointless.

The ANO movement often criticizes Puta over this case.

The second case and the election results

Another criminal prosecution of Puta, for failing to report a crime, was overturned in May this year, and the case was returned to the police for further investigation. The police had pursued him on the grounds that he was allegedly offered a bribe, rejected it, but did not report it to the police.

The second round of the Senate elections took place on 16 and 17 October 2026. The STAN movement won, ANO did not defend a single seat, and the Pirates also lost seats. After the first round, five people became senators.

Source: novinky.cz