Illustration photo – Otakar Foltýn poses for the photographer of the Czech Press Office, June 29, 2022, Prague.
Prague – The Parliamentary Defense Committee will discuss the resignation of the Chief of the Military Police Otakar Foltýn next Tuesday. Committee chairman Lubomír Metnar (ANO) told ČTK this today. According to Metnar, Foltýn's request to be relieved of his duties at the end of February does not indicate good personnel work at the Ministry of Defense. At the committee meeting, he will ask about the reasons for his departure.
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On Tuesday, Minister of Defense Jana Černochová (ODS) told Ekonomické déník that Foltýn had asked to be relieved of his duties. According to the Military Police Act, the Chief is appointed and dismissed by the Minister of Defense after discussion in the relevant parliamentary committee. “Today, an invitation will be sent to MPs with a deadline of February 28,” Metnar told ČTK.
Metnar was very surprised by Foltýn's resignation. “The Minister of Defense dismissed the previous chief of the military police, Miroslav Murček, in a hurry, half a year before the expiration of his mandate, which ended on December 31, 2022,” he said. Foltýn then ends after seven months, he added. “His choice was criticized at the committee at the time. This situation does not indicate good personnel work. I will ask the committee about the reasons for the resignation,” he added.
According to the Economic Journal, Foltýn's departure is related to his progress in the prosecution of the head of the military police inspection, Tomáš Voráč, due to the suspected purchase of a device to protect against eavesdropping from special financial funds of the military police. Foltýn did not put Voráč out of service, which he should have done according to the regulations, the server wrote. Černochová stated that she received Foltýn's request last Thursday.
Foltýn has been the commander of the military police since last July, until then he served in the analytical department of the army command. In the past, he worked for the special forces in the Department of Concepts and Management or as a lawyer at the Inspectorate of the Chief of the General Staff. Černochová previously described Foltýn as an excellent military lawyer with almost twenty years of experience. As a lawyer, he worked in three foreign operations in the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.
The Military Police was established in 1991 and fulfills the tasks of police protection of the armed forces, military facilities, military material and other property of the state managed by the Ministry of Defense . The Chief of the Military Police is directly subordinate to the Minister of Defense. There are around 1,200 military policemen, and according to the website of the military police, Foltýn's representative is Jiří Roček.
