IKEM is the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague, a hospital and research institution whose former management was tried for the blackmail of two cardiac surgeons.
IKEM, in full the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, is a hospital and research institution in Prague.[1][2]
Dispute within the management (2021–2023)
According to the indictment, between 2021 and 2023 a dispute took place inside the institution between its then management and cardiac surgeons Jan Pirk and Ivan Netuka.[3] The then director of IKEM, Michal Stiborek, his deputy Jiří Malý and the head of the IT department, Petr Raška, are alleged to have threatened the doctors with publishing compromising material so that they would stop endangering their positions in the hospital's leadership.[2][4] According to the indictment, the aim was to enable Stiborek to defend his post as director in a selection procedure announced by the Ministry of Health in spring 2023.[4]
According to the indictment, forged documents were created about Pirk suggesting hidden stakes in a company that won a contract for medical supplies at IKEM in 2012.[3][4] Raška is also alleged to have photographed from Pirk's work phone a message in which Netuka made a vulgar remark about the then health minister Vlastimil Válek, and Malý then sent it to the minister from an anonymous number.[1]
The case was examined by the General Inspectorate of Security Forces over a suspected involvement of a member of the Police of the Czech Republic, which, according to ČT24, was not confirmed.[2]
The October 2026 verdict
On 7 October 2026 the Prague 4 District Court imposed a fine of CZK 50,000 on Malý and CZK 80,000 on Raška for blackmailing Pirk and Netuka.[1][2] The court also awarded each of the two cardiac surgeons CZK 20,000 in compensation for non-material harm.[3] Judge Jana Petráková said that "the situation at IKEM had long been heated" and that the dispute "went beyond the notional boundaries of the IKEM environment".[3] According to the judge, suspended sentences were not appropriate because a longer time had passed since the defendants' conduct and it was a departure from an otherwise orderly way of life.[3] The court discontinued the criminal proceedings against Stiborek, who died in August 2025.[1][2] Both Malý and Raška have denied guilt from the start, and the verdict is not final.[1][2]
Chronology
- — The Prague 4 District Court imposed a fine of CZK 50,000 on Jiří Malý, a former deputy director of IKEM, and CZK 80,000 on Petr Raška, a former head of the IT department, for the blackmail of cardiac surgeons Jan Pirk and Ivan Netuka; the verdict is not final. → ČTK / České noviny iROZHLAS
Sources
- ČTK / České noviny — 7 October 2026
- ČT24 — 7 October 2026
- Seznam Zprávy — 7 October 2026
- Novinky.cz — 7 October 2026