HOPES that Czech police, prosecutors and judges will be bold in investigating and trying top politicians involved in graft have gained a little encouragement. Police arrested a prominent opposition politician, David Rath, earlier this week and charged him with accepting a bribe. Seven other people were arrested and charged with graft, harming the interests of the European Union and rigging public tenders, following a half-year police investigation that involved wiretapping of phone calls and office meetings.

Police arrested Mr Rath, a powerful Central Bohemian governor, Social Democratic lawmaker and a former health minister, on Monday evening with 7m Czech crowns (£222,000) after leaving "the space in which criminal activity took place", state attorney Lenka Bradacová said. (She has the reputation of an incorruptible Corrado Cattani in a skirt.) If convicted, Mr Rath faces 12 years in prison. A judge ordered him to remain in custody for fear that he could escape the country, continue his criminal activity or influence witnesses. The parliament's lower house is expected to strip him of immunity at its next meeting.

Juicy yet unconfirmed (as investigators remain mum) details are emerging in the Czech press. The news website aktualne.cz, citing its knowledge of a yet- to-be-published indictment, said that Rath received the kickback in exchange for rigging a public tender for a 215-million-crown renovation of a Central Bohemian castle, mostly to be covered from EU funds. According to news reports, he carried the sum either in a shoebox or a wine box. His lawyer confirmed another detail:vthat Rath was armed at the time of the arrest. Reports citing informed sources also said that police allegedly found additional 30m crowns hidden under a floor during the searches of suspects' villas.

Whether these reports are accurate will be known only after officials release more information. Nevertheless, newspaper photographs showed police officers carrying a money counter into the lawmaker's house, plus bags labeled ammunition and an assault rifle from a house of another person arrested and charged in the case.

Mr Rath, a doctor by training who often sports bow ties and striped shirts with white collars says was given a box with wine during a visit and to his surprise it contained cash He has stepped down from his offices in Central Bohemia but not from his seat in parliament. He maintains that is a victim of a political plot and likened his case to that of Ukraine's former premier, Yulia Tymoshenko. But no protestors have so far filled up streets of Czech towns. Instead, his compatriots, deeply sick of high-level corruption, are posting Rath-inspired jokes on the Internet.

A sharp-tongued orator who started out as the leader of medical doctors' union in the mid-1990s, Mr Rath is known for his attacks on political rivals, which frequently include denouncing them as corrupt. Clips have quickly popped up on the news websites. His combative rhetoric made international headlines in 2006, when a political opponent slapped him in front of cameras at a dentists' conference, after Mr Rath accused him of marrying his wife for money. The men subsequently exchanged blows in front of an amused audience.

Most cases of top-level corruption in the Czech Republic fizzle out. Mr Rath's arrest--apparently red-handed--has led some to speak of a milestone on the road to improvement. "It seems that police are not avoiding the prominent in recent times. It is a symbol that the Czech Republic is becoming a European country," Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said. Others remain more cautious. Lawyer Václav Láska, a former police investigator and an anti-corruption activist, told readers of an online discussion on idnes.cz news website that it will require "two, three similar busts" until politicians really start to respect the law. But it is clear that the public mood has influenced the political class' response. Mr Rath's party, the opposition Social Democrats, has not backed him, a stark contrast to what would have happened only a few years ago. Instead, the party called on him to leave parliament. Now it is over to the courts, and to the prosecutors to make there case there.