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US troops' Iraq leave bid blocked ... amendment to the Constitution by which it intends to radically limit the current legislators' immunity from prosecution. It has also proposed to widen the immunity from prosecution for speeches and voting in parliament to include regional and local authority members. The bill will now be again debated by the Chamber of Deputies.
Given the deputies' positions, it is not clear whether the amended bill will meet with a positive response. For an amendment to the Constitution to be passed it should be approved by both parliamentary houses. According to the senators' bill, the immunity from the prosecution of legislators for minor offences will be preserved. The police would only be able to arrest a legislator who is suspected for having committed a crime. In such cases, the arrest will only be possible with the consent of either the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate. The changes were proposed by the chairman of the Senate immunity committee Jiri Pospisil (Civic Democrats, ODS) who pointed to the European Parliament experience. The new bill has replaced the original senators' bill according to which the legislators should only be protected by the immunity in respect to their speeches and voting in parliament. However, the Chamber rejected the bill in June and returned it to the Senate for re-drafting. Under the current practice, it is up to the parliament to decide whether it will allow criminal prosecution of the legislators by stripping them of parliamentary immunity. If the parliament does not allow the prosecution it cannot be re-opened in the future.
(Ceske Noviny)
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