Brothel ties oust politician

By Wency Leung and Nina Makelberge

Staff Writers

On its Web site, Hotel Vyhlídka touts itself as a "sought-out destination for a pleasantly spent holiday," and boasts of its views of the "beautiful, magical nature" of Náchod, east Bohemia. The hillside hotel calls itself a perfect site for business seminars, family celebrations and other occasions. "If you haven't been to Vyhlídka," its slogan reads, "you haven't seen Náchod."

In stark contrast to the idyllic image it projects, however, Hotel Vyhlídka has in recent weeks become the center of allegations of prostitution, corruption and malfeasance. Its owner, Miroslav Mrština, a longtime regional official of the opposition Social Democrats (ČSSD), has been stripped of his party membership after the daily Mladá fronta Dnes reported that millions of crowns of state money were used to reconstruct the hotel, which, until as late as 2005, allegedly housed a brothel.

The newspaper has published photographs and testimonies of East European women who said they worked as prostitutes at Hotel Vyhlídka, and reported it has obtained documents signed by Mrština, dating from 1997 and 1998, inviting them to work at his hotel.

The newspaper's exposé has also prompted finger-pointing and vehement denials of wrongdoing among the ČSSD, as well as the ruling Civic Democrats (ODS). Yet, so far, in spite of the seriousness of the allegations against Mrština, there appears little in the way of an official investigation.

Both the Náchod police and the anti-corruption police said last week they were unaware of any official probe into the case.

On Feb. 19, ČSSD leader Jiří Paroubek announced he no longer considered Mrština a member of his party. Mrština had been a member of ČSSD for about 10 years, heading the party's Náchod branch. Media reports "concerning certain photographs, whose sources appear of criminal nature, are shocking to me and at the same time support my conviction that ČSSD must distance itself from such matters," Paroubek said in a statement.

The following day, the ČSSD's political panel released a second statement, proclaiming that Mrština "openly lied about his business activities from 1998 to 2002" when the party leadership called him in to answer to the press reports.

Both the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry and the Regional Development Ministry, now headed by the ODS and coalition Christian Democrats, respectively, confirmed that they provided a total of more than 5 million Kč in subsidies to Mrština in 2005 and 2006, while the ministries were under the control of the ČSSD.

Mrština said he was too busy to speak to reporters by telephone in the past two weeks, and did not respond to repeated requests for comment by e-mail.

However, Mladá fronta Dnes reporter Janek Kroupa, who broke the story, told The Prague Post that Mrština admitted to him in an interview that he had used at least part of the subsidies to get rid of small rooms at the hotel, which had been used for the brothel. Mrština said he later built a swimming pool in place of the small rooms to turn the property into a legitimate hotel, Kroupa said.

Dirty business

Regardless of whether state money was used to directly finance the revamping of a former brothel, there are other questions regarding Mrština's use of the subsidies.

The Labor and Social Affairs Ministry granted Mrština about 3.9 million Kč in 2006 through the Hradec Králové Labor Office for a project intended to improve job prospects for the disabled. Under the terms of the grant, which was mostly funded by the European Social Fund, a series of counseling and training courses were held at Hotel Vyhlídka, where participants also received accommodation.

Jiří Sezemský, head of the press department for the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, said a subsequent audit found no unrecognizable expenses, but he noted there are questions about the unusually high cost of the program. The team conducting the courses was paid for 24 months of work, even though the series of courses lasted 28 weeks, he said.

Furthermore, the training itself made up only one-third of the cost of the entire project. "From today's perspective, we consider this project an example of the inefficient use of public funds," Sezemský said.

Meanwhile, the Regional Development Ministry said it granted 1.3 million Kč to Mrština for "tourism development" in 2005. Mrština was supposed to use those funds to build a sauna, swimming pool and whirlpool at Hotel Vyhlídka, among other recreational facilities, to promote tourism in the area, said ministry spokeswoman Kateřina Jegorovová.

In 2006, however, the Náchod Financial Office began an investigation into the hotel "for the reason of suspecting a breach in the budget discipline," Jegorovová said. "Within the project parameters, he was supposed to build a sauna, which he didn't do."

Besides denouncing Mrština, ČSSD spokesman Ondřej Macura further distanced his party from the scandal by charging that the subsidies Mrština obtained were provided by ODS Deputy David Kafka, and not by members of his own party. Kafka was formerly in charge of the local Hradec Králové Labor Office.

Contacted last week, Kafka dismissed media reports of the affair as fiction. "Mrština's dirty business was terminated at the hotel in 1999 or 2000," Kafka said. He added that the subsidies were not granted until about five years later, and were used appropriately.

ODS spokesman Milan Bouška also distanced his party from the affair, noting that the "former activities of MP Kafka has no connection with the ODS."

Separately, the ČSSD's vice chairman, Zdeněk Škromach, who was labor and social affairs minister at the time that the ministry subsidized Mrština's hotel, told the Czech News Agency that the Mladá fronta Dnes exposé was "a pack of lies."

Kroupa said he stands by his reporting about the scandal and hopes police will investigate the case. However, that doesn't appear likely, based on the response of local authorities.

Náchod police spokeswoman Eva Prachařová said the police have never investigated any activities related to a brothel operation at Hotel Vyhlídka, nor did they intend to now. "The Náchod police aren't informed of any relevant information on which it could initiate an investigation into the business activities of Mrština," she said.

- Naďa Černá contributed to this report.

The writers can be reached at news@praguepost.com