Zeman must apologize for the slanderous statement. He failed to appeal in court

The Supreme Court decided on Miloš Zeman’s appeal regarding the apology to former adviser Zdenek Šarapatka. Zeman failed and must apologize for his slanderous statement, Seznam Zpravy wrote.

“The Supreme Court rejected Miloš Zeman’s appeal. The details will be available after the original decision is drawn up, which will be within 60 days at the latest,” Supreme Court spokeswoman Gabriela Tomíčková told Seznam Zprávy.

In November 2017, Zeman said on Barrandov TV that he fired Šarapatka due to incompetence. “Zdeněk Šarapatka is a person who once worked, now I don’t know if at the People’s House or at the Government Office, it’s been a long time ago, but I know that I fired him for incompetence,” said Zeman. Šarapatka, however, left the Government Office by agreement when Zeman was prime minister.

In addition to the apology, the court directly ordered Zeman to pay the costs of the proceedings. In total, it was 29,027 crowns. As Seznam Zprávy previously wrote, Zeman did not pay this amount from his own money, it was paid by the Office of the President of the Republic.

In addition, Zeman had lawyer Marko Nespala paid from public money in this dispute, for which the Office of the President of the Republic was later fined by the tax authority, the server pointed out. The office then had to pay 148,910 crowns and also a fine of 15,491 crowns. She returned the money she received for representing Zeman. He sent back 334,439 crowns to the office of the President of the Republic.

The former advisor to the courts had previously obtained an apology for the statement from the state, specifically the Ministry of Finance, but the Constitutional Court subsequently overturned the judgments, stating that Zeman was responsible for the statements as a private person. Šarapatka therefore filed a new lawsuit against the president, which the courts upheld.