Final Word from Thursday, March 26, 2015
Whenever someone important dies in the CR under strange circumstances, it's useful to remember the case of Prague police officer Zdeněk Janíček, who was found hanged in his cellar in 2005. Before committing suicide, he stabbed himself 29 times, or so concluded the official investigation. Initial reports this week indicated that well-known businessman Peter Kovarčík died from slipping in his bathroom. Only now are we learning from Právo that he was about to be investigated for possible money-laundering with regard to Václav Klaus's amnesty of Jan. 1, 2013. The investigation was put in motion by a letter to Swiss prosecutors from Karel Janeček's Anticorruption Endowment suggesting that amnesty bribes went into a Swiss account. The question now is whether Kovarčík was so consumed with his defense that he lost sight of the slippery floor. Or whether someone lent him a hand as a way to tie up loose ends. [Czech Republic Slovakia Switzerland]
Glossary of difficult words
hanged - killed by tying a rope (attached from above) around the neck and removing the support from beneath;
to put/set something in motion - to start or trigger a series of events;
consumed with - absorbing all of the attention and energy of someone;
to lose sight of - to fail to consider, be aware of or remember something;
to tie up lose ends - to deal with the minor consequences of a previous action.