No evidence Czech leader's computer hacked with child porn: police

Czech police said Monday they had found no evidence that hackers had infected the computer of the Czech president with child pornography, a claim made as he prepares to run for re-election.

Police in Prague closed their probe into the alleged hacking of President Milos Zeman's computer and refused to comment on how child pornography ended up on his screen.

"The investigation is closed because we found nothing suspicious that would suggest illegal behaviour," national police spokeswoman Ivana Nguyenova told AFP.

"We will not reveal the details of this case, due to the lack of legal grounds," she added.

Zeman alleged last week that hackers based in the US state of Alabama put child pornography on one of his computers a year ago.

A former communist with staunch anti-Muslim, pro-Russian and pro-Chinese views, Zeman announced three weeks ago that he would seek a second five-year term in January's presidential election.

"About a year ago, someone installed child pornography on my computer," Zeman said in an interview with the Frekvence 1 radio station, which was posted on his official website.

"I looked at it for about 10 seconds before I realised what was going on," said Zeman, a 72-year-old veteran leftwinger and the first directly elected Czech head of state.

Zeman said he had initially considered filing a criminal complaint, but then changed his mind after consulting his IT staff.

Ales Spidla, a cybersecurity expert, said Zeman might have haphazardly clicked on a child porn website that had previously been accessed on his computer.

"It's not easy to find this type of content on the internet. You have to really want to," Spidla told the Aktualne news website on Monday.

"I think that someone else went on this kind of site on this computer before the president."

Hackers have previously targeted other senior Czech officials.

Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek said in January that hackers had compromised his official email account as well as dozens of others belonging to ministry employees.