Stanislav Gross: Lawyer who became the Czech Republic's youngest prime minister but resigned only nine months later

Gross had been suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Gross: he stepped down as premier amid a crisis sparked by reports of irregular loans that helped him buy a luxury flat (AP)

Stanislav Gross, who has died at the age of 45, became the Czech Republic's youngest prime minister in July 2004 but was forced to resign nine months later facing questions about his personal finances.

Born in Prague, Gross worked for the state -owned rail company, training as a driver. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989 he joined the Social Democratic party (CSSD), rising to head of its youth wing and entering parliament in 1992.

He eventually became chairman of the party, and in 2000 he was named interior minister in Milos Zeman's government, and subsequently deputy prime minister under Vladimir Spidla. He became premier at the age of 34 but resigned nine months later after weeks of a crisis sparked by a scandal over the financing of his luxury apartment, which appeared to have been bought thanks to loans the origins of which were unclear.

It was also reported that his wife, Sarka Grossova, was the business associate of a brothel owner who was later jailed for insurance fraud. Gross denied any wrongdoing but also stepped down as his party chairman and left politics to work for a law firm.

A month after the 9/11 attacks in the US, Gross stated on record that one of the hijackers, Mohamed Atta, had met a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Prague the previous April. That purported meeting was cited as evidence of a possible al-Qaida connection to Iraq, but the 9/11 commission would subsquently declare that the meeting never happened.

Gross had been suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

EVE THOMAS

Stanislav Gross, politician: born Prague 30 October 1969; married Sarka Grossova (two daughters); died Prague 16 April 2015.