Defendants in coal-mining OKD privatisation case acquitted

A court on Monday acquitted Rudolf Doucha, who drafted an expert report on the price of the state-owned shares in the OKD coal-mining company, and former deputy chairmen of the Czech National Property Fund (FNM) Pavel Kuta and Jan Skurek, who were in charge of the privatisation deal. The court ruled that it had not been proven that their conduct was criminal. The verdict was meted out two and a half years after the trial started. In 2004, the sale of the OKD shares was approved by the government of Stanislav Gross (Social Democrats, CSSD). The firm Karbon Invest bought the state-owned securities in OKD for 4.1 billion crowns (EUR 160.9m). According to the state attorney's office, the real price of the state securities was at least 9.8 billion, due to which the state incurred the damage of over 5.7 billion crowns.