A group of influential Czechs – a politician, a lobbyist and several managers from private and a state-controlled firm — spent last weekend together in the United Arab Emirates, the server news Aktuálně.cz reported Wednesday. Czech Position has ascertained more details about the private meeting between ODS deputy Pavel Suchánek, lobbyist Roman Janoušek and ČEZ boss Martin Roman. It could relate indirectly to the draft lottery law.

The Civic Democrats’ (ODS) Prague branch claims that Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek (TOP 09) acted improperly and apparently illegally by making public information compiled by the ministry’s Financial Analytical Unit (FAÚ), with the assistance of the unit’s director, Milan Cícer, over the ProMoPro case. In a resolution obtained by Czech Position, the ODS branch calls on its party leaders to take decisive action.

The governing coalition finds itself in a tight corner with the ‘scandals’ surrounding the Barták, Drobil and Vondra cases, which have all received copious media coverage. The main difference between the three cases, writes Jan Schneider, is in the way the media have reported them — and the fact that only two have thus far prompted police investigations.

Czech rights activist Stanislav Penc has won a civil dispute and staved off a potential Kč 10 million fine for having allegedly processed personal data without the consent of the parties concerned. Penc had criticized the management of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (ÚSTR) for being inactive in exposing some dealings of the Communist-era secret police (StB) and published materials on his own accord.