Court lifts fines imposed on extremists
ČTK | 6 JANUARY 2012
Brno, Jan 5 (CTK) - The Brno Regional Court mitigated the sentences imposed on six members of the outlawed ultra-right Czech Workers' Party (DS) over extremist statements they made on May Day 2009, lifting the fines given to four of them yesterday.
Appeals court panel chairman Karel Hortik justified the verdict saying the fines were imposed at variance with law. However, the court found the six persons guilty and upheld the original suspended sentences.
The six former DS members were given suspended sentences of four to eight months in prison and fines of 20,000-30,000 crowns in November 2010.
The then DS chairman Tomas Vandas was sentenced to four months in prison with a 20-month probationary period and a fine of 25,000 crowns.
However, the DS members appealed the verdict and the Regional Court cancelled it.
It ordered reconsideration of the case along with a detailed questioning of court extremism expert Michal Mazl.
Mazl confirmed that the statements by the six persons had been extremely radical, having incited racial intolerance and being indirectly linked with Nazism. He said Vandas and his fellow defendants had encroached upon the rights of ethnic minorities living in the Czech Republic, Romanies, Vietnamese and immigrants in particular.
The judge said the DS leadership had tried to mitigate and played down their original statements, calling them jokes and allegories during the trial. She stressed that not even a little child would trust their defence and upheld the verdict.
Vandas and his fellow defendants therefore turned to the Regional Court again.
The Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) dissolved the DS in February 2010, complying with the proposal of the government saying the DS is extremist and poses a threat to democracy.
After the party was outlawed, its leadership along with Vandas established the far-right Workers' Party of Social Justice (DSSS).
Source http://praguemonitor.com/2012/01/06/court-lifts-fines-imposed-extremists
Brno, Jan 5 (CTK) - The Brno Regional Court mitigated the sentences imposed on six members of the outlawed ultra-right Czech Workers' Party (DS) over extremist statements they made on May Day 2009, lifting the fines given to four of them yesterday.
Appeals court panel chairman Karel Hortik justified the verdict saying the fines were imposed at variance with law. However, the court found the six persons guilty and upheld the original suspended sentences.
The six former DS members were given suspended sentences of four to eight months in prison and fines of 20,000-30,000 crowns in November 2010.
The then DS chairman Tomas Vandas was sentenced to four months in prison with a 20-month probationary period and a fine of 25,000 crowns.
However, the DS members appealed the verdict and the Regional Court cancelled it.
It ordered reconsideration of the case along with a detailed questioning of court extremism expert Michal Mazl.
Mazl confirmed that the statements by the six persons had been extremely radical, having incited racial intolerance and being indirectly linked with Nazism. He said Vandas and his fellow defendants had encroached upon the rights of ethnic minorities living in the Czech Republic, Romanies, Vietnamese and immigrants in particular.
The judge said the DS leadership had tried to mitigate and played down their original statements, calling them jokes and allegories during the trial. She stressed that not even a little child would trust their defence and upheld the verdict.
Vandas and his fellow defendants therefore turned to the Regional Court again.
The Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) dissolved the DS in February 2010, complying with the proposal of the government saying the DS is extremist and poses a threat to democracy.
After the party was outlawed, its leadership along with Vandas established the far-right Workers' Party of Social Justice (DSSS).
Source http://praguemonitor.com/2012/01/06/court-lifts-fines-imposed-extremists
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