RADOVAN KREJCIR TO RETURN TO SEYCHELLES!
A South African court has extended the custody of Czech born businessman Radovan Krejcir, until May 17 when the court is to decide whether he can be released on bail. The Czech Ambassador to South Africa, Jaroslav Siro, told the CTK news agency recently that the embassy had provided a court interpreter for Mr. Krejcir’s hearing.
Radovan Krejcir, a Seychellois citizen, is wanted in the Czech Republic for various crimes, including conspiracy to murder, money forgery, tax evasion, extortion, and abduction. He has already been sentenced in absentia to six and a half years in jail for fraud. He fled from the Czech police to the Seychelles in 2005.
The South African police arrested Krejcir at the Johannesburg International Airport three weeks ago as he tried to enter South Africa with a Seychellois passport under the false name of Egbert Jules Savy. The passport was issued in Seychelles by the Immigration department to Krejcir. Krejcir arrived in South Africa from Madagascar according to news reports.
The government of President Michel has remained conspicuously silent on that matter. Mr. Michel is in fact the Minister of Internal Affairs. His silence is becoming more and more deafening. The public is clamouring for an explanation as to how a legal passport could contain a false name. This silence is slowing becoming a form of admission of complicity by certain well connected individuals at the very top of the government as information on how Radovan Krejcir obtained the passport slowly seeps out.
THE ISSUING OF DOCUMENTS UNDER FALSE NAME
It is alleged that a very senior official of the Immigration Department was behind the scheme to issue the passport. It is not known at this stage if President Michel himself sanctioned the deal or the instruction came from Maison du Peuple. But what we know is that Radovan Krejcir frequented the private office of this particular senior civil servant at Independence House regularly and the said person was a regular guest at dinner at his home, before Krejcir left Mahé aboard his yacht, officially heading for the Ammirantes Archipelago, where we have learnt, he boarded another vessel which took him to Madagascar.
It appears the passport was obtained through a normal application to the immigration office but using the false name and a false birth certificate, while the senior official in question facilitated the issuance. Apparently the whole thing was done while the usual officer in charge of issuing passports, Mr. Michel Elizabeth, was on holiday. Elizabeth is known to be a diligent incorruptible civil servant. It is understood that he was asked to take his annual leave at that time.
We have now learnt that, soon after Krejcir had left Mahe, a letter was sent out to the non-existing Egbert Jules Savy demanding that the passport be returned to the immigration authority for cancellation. We have also since learnt that was a ploy aimed providing a form of cover for the high official. The police in Seychelles was also alerted and apparently a red alert was sent out via International Police (Interpol) which specifically identified Radovan Krejcir as the holder of an illegally obtained passport. Krejcir, it seems, had not endeared himself well with some senior members of the local police, even though, we have learnt, it was Krejcir who provided the foreign currencies to import the new police vehicles. He is still waiting repayment in rupees
In Madagascar Krejcir is believed to have boarded a Nationwide airline flight to Johannesburg, where South Africa authorities, tipped off by Interpol, was waiting for him. As the story unfolds, it looks like Krejcir has been the victim of a classic set-up. If the red alert had not been put out by the Seychelles Authoritties Radovan Krejcir would have slipped quietly into South Africa unnoticed.
THE FRAMING OF RADOVAN KREJCIR
Many questions remain to be answered: Who ordered the issuance of the passport? Why did they decide, after issuing the passport, to ‘shop’ Radovan? Who were the people in Seychelles behind the plot to ‘shop’ Krejcir? What have they got to gain in doing so? According to news reports, it was Czech civilian intelligence tipped-off South Africa about Krejcir’s trip. How did Czech civilian intelligence come by this information? How well connected is Czech intelligence in Seychelles?
The case of Krejcir has created a great deal of interest principally because of another case of a Czech businessman, who has Irish citizenship but arrested in the Bahamas. Viktor Kozeny had been prosecuted over serious frauds in the USA and the Czech Republic but was unexpectedly released on bail two weeks ago after spending months in custody.
It is believed that the extradition of fugitive Czech businessman Radovan Krejcir from South Africa to his native Czech Republic may be complicated by the fact that the South African government has temporarily stopped extraditions of suspects. The SA government’s step has nothing to do with Krejcir, though. It is related to a case of a U.S. couple who fought against their extradition to the USA.
KREJCIR MIGHT RETURN
Krejcir’s lawyers has told Czech Television that the verdict in the case of the U.S. couple may influence other cases, including Krejcir’s. The couple’s case has lasted over two years but may take another two years.
In the Czech Republic, Krejcir has been prosecuted for property crimes and preparation of the murder of a customs officer. He disappeared during a search of his wife’s luxury villa near Prague two years ago and fled to the Seychelles where he enjoys citizenship which he acquired some years before under the scandalous economic citizenship programme pursued by President Rene.
Observers believe Krejcir would most probably be released on bail in the near future. It is expected that he might even be allowed to travel back to Seychelles since he has Seychellois citizenship and was travelling on a Seychelles passport when arrested, albeit under a false name. Legal opinions suggest that he can only be tried in the Seychelles or in South Africa for that crime, not in the Czech Republic.
This is worrying news to the people who thought they had finally got rid of him. Krejcir’s lawyer said that the case would last months. In South Africa, Krejcir has made a legal challenge to the Czech Republic’s demand for his extradition there.
Here in Seychelles the matter is not so much a criminal act perpetrated by Radovan Krejcir, but rather one perpetrated by high level official or officials. In the process, the name of our beloved Seychelles has been dragged in mud again, reinforcing the international view that we are a corrupt and failing state. All responsibilities for this bad image must lie at the door of State House.
President Michel must come clean and order a public inquiry into this matter. Only a National Assembly dominated by the opposition will force Michel’s hand. As everyone wants to know the truth here is an opportunity we cannot miss.
