Press Releases

11. 9. 200810:43

11. 9. 2008: The Case of the Czech Entomologists in India Is Nonstandard, Says the Czech Premier

The visiting Indian Industry and Trade Minister Kamal Nath today met Czech Premier Mirek Topolánek. In addition to discussing mutual trade and other bilateral issues, the Czech Premier has voiced his great concern over the three-year prison sentence given to a Czech entomologist in India. 


“Not only myself but the entire scientific community view this case as a nonstandard solution, there’s definitely no trading in beetles going on in our country. I do hope that the whole matter will be finally solved, and I would not like this case to become a precedent. Now I am not campaigning for a principle but for the Czech scientists themselves,“ says Premier Mirek Topolánek. 

The Czech Premier conveyed to the visiting Indian Minister his greetings to the Prime Minister of India with a request to concentrate on the case of the Czech entomologists Petr Švácha and Emil Kučera, detained and tried in India. “We did not want to interfere in the case until a judgment is delivered. There are two possibilities: an appeal or pardon,“ Minister Kamal Nath was quoted as saying. 

Premier Mirek Topolánek would welcome acquittal of the charges on Czech scientist Emil Kučera whom an Indian court found guilty and given him a three-year unconditional prison sentence. At the same time, the Czech Premier would not want an eventual acquittal of the Czech scientists to become a precedent for illegal collection of beetles and insects.