A Czech suspected of being Counter intelligence service Official suffering from “amnesia”, found in a snowdrift in Oslo last December, has began regaining fragments of memory after speaking with his family over the phone. It has come to light that the man, who has gone under the name of John Smith since his rescue, worked for the Czech Interior Ministry. With every turn, the mystery surrounding a 36-year-old calling himself john Smith has deepened, ago it was not ever clear he was Czech, although he understood the language, along with Slovak, Russian and Polish.Since, he has been identified by his family after his photo was officially posted and at the weekend he reportedly spoke with them for three hours, helping him regain some fragments of lost memories.
But satisfactory answers are not likely to be revealed for some time, the big questions include why he may have been to Oslo, Perhaps the most intriguing development were reports that John Smith was employed by the Czech police or the Interior Ministry, told by his father that he had been “WORKING ON SOMETHING BIG” at the time of his alleged abduction. There was the possibility “HE HAD SECURITY CLEARANCE AND ACCESS TO SENSITIVE INFORMATION”. The country’s interior minister, Milan Chovanec, briefly addressed the question on Sunday:
“we are looking into the question of whether he worked for the police or the Czech Interior Ministry. Certainly it is something that requires out attention and we are taking it very seriously. I cannot rule out he worked either for the police or for the ministry and will tell the public when we know more.”
Interior Ministry spokesman Pavel Novak told to media that the “ministry cannot provide any details because information on a person´s employment is a personal data and is protected.”
According to Sunday information by the Norwegian public television NRK, the man starts remembering his past life, which has also been thanks to his phone call with the parents on Saturday. In it he was told that he worked for the “Czech police as a consultant” in the past.
His father will only travel to Norway to meet with his son. In any case, As for the victim’s chances of additional recovery from amnesia? Specialists say much will depend on the nature of the injury but that some memories should slowly come back, although the process can take anywhere from weeks to years. A leading Czech neurologist has pointed out the loss of episodic memory ie. autobiographical knowledge suggested damage to the right frontal lobe but understandably could not make a precise diagnosis without information from MRIs and other tests conducted. In any event, the case is in the hands of Norwegian investigators and the Czech police – who, even were they so inclined – cannot reveal more during an ongoing investigation. It will be some time yet before the public learns more about the true identity of John Smith.
By Nadarajah Sethurupan