Minister of Justice in the government of Bohuslav Sobotka
What was the position of Helena Válková from 2014 to Oct 2014?
Helena Válková Helena Válková ( born 7 January 1951 ) is a Czech politician , university professor , and lawyer , specialising in criminal law and criminology . From January 2014 until March 2015 she was the Czech Minister of Justice in the government of Bohuslav Sobotka . She was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for ANO 2011 , though she is now non-partisan . On 10 February 2015 , Andrej Babiš , the leader of ANO 2011 , announced that Válková will be replaced in the function by the lawyer Robert Pelikán . Válkovás tenure ended on 1 March . Life and career . Válková attended the Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague , where she received her Candidate of Sciences in the field of criminal law . Between 1975 and 1988 she worked as a scientist at the Criminological Research Institute , and then until 1993 at the Institute of State and Law of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences . She also taught from 1991 at the Charles University Faculty of Philosophy , where she laid the foundations for her social work in criminal justice , and from 1993 in the Faculty of Law at the University of West Bohemia in Plzen , where she became Head of the Criminal Law Department in 1998 . She was temporarily suspended from this office in 2009 following her criticism of the faculty management . Further disagreements finally led her to leave the faculty in 2011 . She gained a doctorate in Criminal Law in 2006 from the University of Trnava . She is also a member of the Department of Public Law and Public Justice at the CEVRO Institute in Prague . In 1993 she founded the Czech branch of C . H . Beck , where she became director of publishing . She later became chief editor of the publishing schedule and of specialist magazines . She organised and took part in an international conference on criminal law and criminology , and took part in several study trips to the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg . She was involved in writing the Juvenile Justice Law ( č . 218/2003 Sb. ) . Helena Válková is married with one son . Political career . Until 1989 , Válková had been a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia . After November 1989 she became involved with Civic Forum . In the 2013 Czech legislative election , she stood successfully for parliament for the ANO 2011 movement of Andrej Babiš , as their number two candidate for the Prague regional list . From 5 December 2013 , she held the position of vice-chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional Affairs . In January 2014 Válková was put forward as the ANO 2011 candidate for Minister of Justice in the government of Bohuslav Sobotka . She was appointed to this position on 29 January 2014 . The following summer she filed an application to join the ANO movement and became a member in early 2015 . In March 2014 , in an interview with the website Echo24 , she was asked for her opinion on the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia following World War II , and replied , The worst . I understand that it was a reaction to what had happened to the Czechs before then , but there wasnt all that much going on in the Protectorate . This comment caused great controversy , and Válková later apologised . At the end of May 2014 , Válková became involved in a dispute with her deputy minister Hana Marvanová , caused by disagreements over reductions in lawyers fees and the appointment of some judicial officials . Marvanová subsequently resigned . Two weeks later she entered another dispute with another deputy , Pavel Štern , over the tendering process for electronic tags for domestic prisoners . Štern refused to provide her with detailed information about the tendering process , to which he claimed she was not entitled . He subsequently consulted the anti-corruption police . Válková cancelled the tender due to doubts about transparency and removed Štern from his post . The personnel changes at the Ministry of Justice provoked a wave of anger in political circles and Prime Minister Sobotka announced , that Should ( Válková ) show any further hesitation in the management of her office , it will be ČSSD as a coalition party requiring a change in the whole Ministry of Justice . In February 2015 she announced her resignation from the post of Czech Minister for Justice , effective 1 March 2015 . Responding to some articles commenting on her failure in managing the ministry , Válková said I have begun to feel disgusted with the situation developing around me . She was replaced by Robert Pelikán . Nomination for the Public Defender office . In December 2019 , Czech President Miloš Zeman nominated her for the office of Ombudsman . In January 2020 the news website Info.cz republished and discussed an article from 1979 authored by Válková together with the communist prosecutor Josef Urválek , accusing her of defending laws used against dissidents during the normalisation era . The controversy resulted in the withdrawal of her nomination by the president .