RPT-Former Czech minister says no wrongdoing in BAE deal

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Former Czech defence minister Jaroslav Tvrdik said on Wednesday he had no knowledge of corruption in a 2002 deal to buy 24 Gripen fighter planes.

Investigators in Britain and Sweden are looking into possible bribery in the deal between Britain's BAE Systems , Sweden's Saab and the Czech government.

There have been no formal charges and all the parties involved deny any wrongdoing.

The Czechs eventually scrapped the purchase due to a shortage of money although they later leased 14 Swedish-made Gripens in a separate transaction.

Three Czech senators have said they were offered a bribe in connection with the original deal.

"I categorically state I never talked with any lobbyist during my tenure as defence minister," Tvrdik, a leftist Social Democrat, told a news conference.

Asked directly if he had been offered any bribe, he said: "Unambiguously no."

He said he had not been contacted by the police about the matter and was ready to fully cooperate if needed.

Former senator Michael Zantovsky, now the Czech ambassador to Israel, filed a criminal complaint about the case but police did not find any culprits and closed the investigation in 2003, the news agency CTK reported.

Ex-prime minister Milos Zeman, whose cabinet approved the deal, has denied any wrongdoing.

Saab, in which BAE owns 20 percent, said on Tuesday it had been contacted by Swedish corruption prosecutors. It had done nothing illegal but would fully cooperate, it said.

Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been looking into corruption claims against BAE over deals in South Africa, Tanzania, Romania, Chile, Qatar and the Czech Republic.

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]