Deputy Prime Minister Jiri Cunek of Czech Republic

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After several hours of questioning at a police station in Olomouc, Cunek said he would not quit as a result of the bribe-taking charges, according to the Czech news agency.

Not long after taking office, Cunek was charged with having accepted a 500,000-crown (23,060 US.

The police started to prosecute Pucek, a former secretary of the town hall in Vestin, of which Cunek was mayor, over perjury inCunek's benefit in June.

Cunek was reappointed by President Vaclav Klaus Wednesday.

After Cunek was acquitted of all financial charges, the party renominated him to the coalition cabinet.

Cunek said that he decided to resign as first deputy prime minister and local development minister after it surfaced that Supreme State Attorney Renata Vesecka wants to reopen the case of his alleged corruption.

I've decided to leave the posts of deputy prime minister and local development minister at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday in order to make the investigation independent for all of you, Cunek said at an extraordinary press conference.

Cunek has been under mounting pressure in recent days to quit over accusations he took welfare payments in the 1990s at a time when he had sizeable savings.

Cunek has repeatedly said he has done nothing illegal in either of the cases, but he has gradually lost the trust of many in his party and Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek.

Cunek is a member of the government, but does not hold a seat as a deputy in the lower house.

conspiracy and stepping down would amount to pleading guilty.

The second is associated with the accusation that Cunek accepted bribe money and sexually harassed his secretary.

Cunek said he considers Vesecka's request a right step as further information leak must be prevented.

Previously Cunek said that he meant his words to address politicians and not Romanies.

Everyone can file a complaint if he believes that a crime was committed," Cunek said without elaborating.

Romany lawyer Martin Conka who filed the complaint pointed out that extremists hailed Cunek for his statements and said that Cunek was the only politician who is not afraid to express his views on Romanies and accompany them with deeds.

For months, Cunek has faced criticism for his decision, in his former capacity as mayor of Vsetin, north Moravia, to evict dozens of Romany families from a dilapidating house to container-like flats on the town outskirts and some even to other Moravian regions.

Now touring his Senate district in southern Moravia, Cunek has refused further comment, since "the report is a subject of a criminal complaint" lodged with the police, said Martin Horalek, the spokesman for Cunek's Christian Democrats.

But Cunek has made it through other troubles.

But along with his speedy rise to power, Cunek has been investigated for allegedly taking a bribe of 500,000 koruny from a Vsetin real estate company in 2002.

var yahooBuzzArticleSummary = "Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development Jiri Cunek is to resign from his government offices on Wednesday over an alleged bribery scandal, the vice premier told reporters Thursday.

Facing charges of corruption as well as a lawsuit over his comments on the Roma, Jiri Cunek is proving a liability for the coalition government.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development Jiri Cunek is facing mounting criticism from all sides; from the opposition as well as the coalition Greens who are threatening to leave the cabinet and also from the Prime Minister himself.

Later in the same year, Cunek was elected chairman of the junior ruling KDU-CSL, and in 2007 he joined the coalition cabinet as deputy prime minister and local development minister.

Stehlikova said Cunek had already met Czech Romany leaders who mainly fear an across-the-board division of Romanies into groups.

Prague - Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development Jiri Cunek is to resign from his government offices on Wednesday over an alleged bribery scandal, the vice premier told reporters Thursday.

PRAGUE, Aug 6 (Reuters) - The Czech government should set a target date for adopting the euro to give companies a clear horizon for decision-making, Deputy Prime Minister Jiri Cunek said on Wednesday.

Cunek is also the regional development minister in charge of tourism, which has been hit by the rapid firming of the crown currency.

bonds prevent the social integration of Romanies.

with their family and put up fires on town squares.

depositing high sums in his accounts in the 1990s.

Cunek has been strongly criticised by NGOs, Romany activists, media and some politicians for his allegedly brutal steps, the paper says.

2006, 7:51 (CTK) - Mayor of Vsetin, South Moravia, and senator for the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) Jiri Cunek has removed from Vsetin further Romanies, this time to the local villages of Cechy pod Kosirem and Drevnovice, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes today.

The Christian Democrats' chairman and Deputy Prime Minister Jiri Cunek is at the centre of a last-minute corruption scandal.

Cunek was already under public attack over the forceful eviction of Roma inhabitants from his town last year.

var PageContent= ' Prague - Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development Jiri Cunek is to resign from his government offices on Wednesday over an alleged bribery scandal, the vice premier told reporters Thursday.

Cunek said he plans to step down at next week\'s cabinet session because the country\'s chief state attorney Renata Vesecka wants to reopen the case in which he has been accused of accepting a bribe.

Although Cunek is the first-ever Czech cabinet minister to have been charged by the police he has so far refused to resign saying the move would amount to admitting guilt.

reopen the case in which he has been accused of accepting a bribe.

move would amount to admitting guilt.

Cunek said on November 1 that he would resign as vice premier and minister for regional development because the chief state attorney wants to reopen an investigation into allegations that he had accepted a bribe of 500,000 koruny (26,965 dollars) in 2002.

accepted a bribe of 500,000 koruny (26,965 dollars) in 2002.

Deputy Prime Minister Jiri Cunek is in hot water once more.

The Czech Republic could spend 10 to 14 billion crowns on upgrading local Romanies' housing in the next ten to fifteen years, under a plan of solving problems faced by the Romany community that is under preparation, Deputy PM and Local Development Minister Jiri Cunek said today.

The vice-prime minister and local development minister Jiri Cunek has announced he leaves all the government seats.

Jiri Cunek is crying foul and is suing Czech Television for libel.

Cunek is waning and that even his closest allies have come to realize that the once promising politician has become a liability.

Cunek is surrounded almost permanently by suspicions and no matter how this affair ends it is quite obvious that Mr.

minister in the centre-right government formed by Mr Topolanek.

Cunek is definitely bad news for the Czech general public.

The accusation raised against Mr Cunek was straight-forward.

Deputy Prime Minister Jiri Cunek is back in the headlines.

is suing Czech Television for libel.

Cunek was appointed housing minister and vice premier in January.

Cunek came under increased pressure to quit this week after Czech public television alleged he drew social benefits in the 1990s while depositing large sums of money in his private account.

Cunek has denied any wrongdoing, arguing the money he deposited was partly his savings, and that drawing social benefits at the same time was not illegal.

PRAGUE • The head of the Czech Christian Democrat Party (KDU-CSL) Jiri Cunek was renamed deputy prime minister yesterday, five months after being forced to quit following graft allegations.

Cunek was already suspected of having received a half million koruna bribe in 2002 when he was mayor of the eastern town of Vsetin.

The Czech Local Development Ministry under the leadership of Christian Democrat chairman Jiri Cunek has reached the state of decay, Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek says in the daily Lidove noviny today.

2008, 16:04, Czech deputy prime minister Jiri Cunek said it is not true that the Romany issue is not within his power, in Questions of.

2008, 09:09, The Czech Local Development Ministry of Jiri Cunek has worked out a plan that reckons with Romany families in the country.

Prague- Czech Local Development Minister Jiri Cunek has completed his plan of measures aimed at solving problems faced by Czech Romanies, he told journalists today.