Czech Republic initiates criminal proceedings against hate speech activist Konvička

24. 11. 2015

Criminal proceedings have been started against Martin Konvička, the head of the Czech hate-speech organization The Anti-Islamic Bloc, in the Czech Republic. Mr Konvička is accused of inciting hatred against a group of individuals or curtailing their rights and freedoms, according to Article 356 Sections 1 and 3a of the Czech criminal code. Konvička is well known for his calls, made on Facebook, that concentration camps and gas chambers should be constructed for muslims and that "muslims should be ground down into bone meal". He has also demanded that the democratic freedoms of those Czech citizens who support muslims should be curtailed. He is being prosecuted for  his statements made on Facebook in 2011-2014. The criminal proceedings have been started by a prosecutor in Northern Bohemia. The case is being supervised by the state prosecutor's office in České Budějovice, South Bohemia, where Konvička lives.

Klára Samková, Konvička's legal representative, has described the criminal proceedings as a "political and ideological trial". Jiří Pospíšil, the former Czech Justice Minister (Civic Democratic Party) has complained that the current Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil, who has called for hate speech to be prosecuted, "threatens democratic freedoms and freedom of speech".

On 17th November 2015, on the day of the 26th anniversary of the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia, Czech President Miloš Zeman attended a rally in Prague, organised by the Anti-Islamic Bloc and sang the Czech national anthem with Mr. Konvička.

Source in Czech: HERE

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