Bém says he will not resign from Parliament

Former Prague mayor Pavel Bém says he does not intend to resign as a Member of Parliament over the current lobbying scandal in which he is involved. In a statement made for the daily Hospodářské noviny, Mr Bém said that he would take personal responsibility and resign if necessary if and when it was proven that he had broken the law. He also said that the taped conversations of himself and lobbyist Roman Janoušek, which suggest the latter had significant influence over city governance, were made illegally and constituted an unbelievable infringement on his privacy. Police are investigating the recordings, which are being published by the daily Mladá fronta Dnes. Mladá fronta claims they were made by the Czech intelligence agency BIS in 2007 and acquired by the detective agency ABL some two years later. That possible leak is the subject of a separate investigation.