Czech senators back charges of treason against outgoing president Vaclav Klaus

Czech senators have backed a move to bring treason charges against President Vaclav Klaus, for pushing through a controversial amnesty and for delaying the signing of major EU documents.

The move by the upper house of the Czech parliament now refers Mr Klaus’s case to the constitutional court, in the first such procedure to be brought against a Czech president.

Mr Klaus does not face grave sanction if found guilty. He can be stripped of the presidency – but his second and final term is due to end on Thursday anyway – and he could lose the perks and pension usually enjoyed by a former head of state.

A guilty verdict could hamper his plans to remain active in politics after stepping down after a decade as president, however, and would tarnish his legacy – particularly in comparison with that of his former arch-rival, the late dissident playwright turned president Vaclav Havel.

The case against him has cast a shadow over his final months in office and exposed the rancour which many Czechs feel towards a pugnacious centre-right leader who has been a major force in his country’s politics since the collapse of communism.

Mr Klaus’s January 1st amnesty saw some 6,000 people who were serving short jail terms released from prison. He also put an end to several high-profile graft cases that had rumbled on for many years, saying he wanted to halt “endless criminal proceedings”. This infuriated many people in a country tainted by corruption and with little faith in the honesty of politicians.

The senate also impeached Mr Klaus – a passionate Eurosceptic – for refusing to ratify a plan to create the ESM bailout fund for euro zone states, despite it being approved by parliament. He also dug in his heels over the Lisbon Treaty, and was the last EU leader to sign it.

“The senate met its task of protecting the constitution by approving the suit,” said Jiri Dienstbier, a senator with the opposition Social Democrats, which control the upper house. “I am glad that the independent constitutional court will have the opportunity to consider how deeply the constitution was violated,” he added.

Mr Klaus (71) has called it “sad that some people in the opposition use the threat of the constitutional court to express political disagreement”.