The magistrate is moved by the alleged presentation of information about Prague’s tactics in the court case to the opposing party

Zábranský stood up for his adviser and considers the matter “theatre”, Beneš then considers a lawsuit to protect the name, according to him, it is an attempt to discredit him.

The lawsuit concerns land owned by the Vinci Construction company, on which the building of the Prague 8 district is located. The company is asking Prague to pay it for the lease of the land. After the metropolis recently lost at the court of first instance, the property councilor Zábranský called a meeting on April 17 in a narrow circle of people involved in the case. According to Novinek, it was attended by lawyers defending Prague, representatives of the municipal property management department (HOM), including director Raka, and Zábranský with Beneš. The meeting was supposed to discuss the next procedure and preparation for the appeal.

Rak claims, however, that shortly after the meeting, Prague representative Radmila Kleslová (ANO) confronted him and paraphrased things that were discussed at the internal meeting and that she should not have known about. In a letter dated April 22, Rak communicated this to the director of the municipality, Martin Kubelka.

At the same time, Kleslová, in addition to the position of representative of the main City of Prague, representative of Prague 10 and chairperson of the control committee there, also acts as legal representative of Vinci Construction, which is suing Prague. Beneš and Kleslova are members of the municipal property committee and sit together in the Prague 10 council. They are therefore often in contact.

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“I understood from the discussion that this information was communicated by Petr Beneš, an adviser to councilor Adam Zábranský,” reads the letter, which is available to Novinky. The Neovlivní.cz server was the first to draw attention to the matter this week.

At the end of the letter, Rak writes that Beneš misused internally obtained data. “He informed the opposing party of the court case about the tactics of the defense of the City of Prague (HMP), thereby violating not only the obligation of confidentiality and the code of ethics, but in particular he favored the opposing party and at the same time acted in clear contradiction to the legitimate interests of the HMP in the aforementioned court proceedings, because by disclosing internal information about the tactics of the opposing party and internal opinion on the whole matter exposed HMP to a situation where its position in the court proceedings could be weakened.”

Beneš is also said to have contacted representatives of the Joint Law Firm Balcar, Veselý, Besser, Bělina, which represents the metropolis in the dispute, with additional questions after the meeting.

“I can confirm that the meeting discussed the facts regarding the further possible development of the legal dispute in which our office represents HMP and our internal opinion on the subject of the dispute and its resolution. I can also confirm that after the meeting, Mr. Beneš contacted us with additional questions about one of the plaintiff’s claims, when he was interested in our counter-argument to this claim,” lawyer Karolina Besser Zelenková told Novinkám sternly, adding that beyond the above she is bound by confidentiality.

Beneš strictly rejected Rak’s claim for Novinky and is considering a lawsuit for reputational damage. “I have not disclosed any secret information to anyone and I am not considering resigning. I try to do the best possible job for Prague every day. But what I’m really considering at the moment is filing a lawsuit for damage to my reputation,” Beneš told the editors, who also added that he was pleased that there was interest in his work.

“I obviously stepped on someone’s chicken eye. I am working to ensure that the money of the citizens of Prague is handled economically. It looks like a targeted attack trying to discredit me,” he added.

Beneš came to the attention of the wider public especially last July, when the media wrote about the fact that his partner and deputy mayor of Prague for the environment, Jana Komrsková (Piráti), had hired him as her adviser. After several days of criticism, which also came from fellow party members, Beneš quit the Komrsková team, which also works in the representative office of Prague 10. In September, however, he moved just one office next door, to the position of advisor to Zábranský, also a pirate member of the Council. It covers the area of ​​property, i.e. the issue of the aforementioned lawsuit.

“The whole thing seems to me like a big theater. Petr Beneš chats with Radmila Kleslova more often, because he sits with her in the Prague 10 council, so it is logical that he chats with her. At the same time, Kleslová constantly, at almost every property committee, asks about this matter and criticizes Prague for the progress in this issue,” defends Beneše Zábranský.

“Maybe he said some things to her, I don’t know, I wasn’t there, but I’m also convinced that he couldn’t have told her anything that could harm Prague. There wasn’t some super secret, strategic information that the other side couldn’t learn. And how we’re going to argue on appeal, they’re going to know because they’re going to get it, they’re going to see it in the file. It can’t harm us in any way,” says Zábranský, who rather criticized Kleslova for an alleged conflict of interests.

“It’s the only thing that seems bizarre and, from my point of view, problematic. It is quite strange that the representative of Prague represents the opposite party in the dispute with Prague,” he added.

The news also asked Kleslova for a reaction and statement on the case. However, she has not yet responded.

Representatives of the municipal coalition want to resolve the matter on Monday.

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