Commentary: Actions, not attitudes, can be criminal

The Municipal Court in Brno has handed down sentences (which have yet to take effect) against six members of the banned Workers’ Party for their seditious speeches against foreigners and Roma and for their support of the neo-Nazi National Resistance association. They received suspended sentences of up to eight months in prison with two years’ probation and fines of up to CZK 30 000.

The maximum possible sentences were as high as three years in prison (and in one case, five). I have noted that some people are surprised the sentencing was so mild, since these are, after all, neo-Nazis! Few people here are aware that neither fascism, nor neo-Nazism, nor racism are criminal offenses under the rule of law, and the Czech Republic is a democratic state where the rule of law applies.

What is criminal is fomenting against others, inciting hatred against them for either their actual or perceived class status, ethnicity, or religion (or lack thereof). Defaming groups is criminal, as is the defamation of people for their political convictions. It is one actions, not one’s approach to life, that can be considered criminal.

Support for a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms is also criminal, as is professing hatred for a given group of people. The evaluation as to whether the words in question qualify as defamation, incitement of hatred, or support for a seditious movement must of course always be performed by a court.

Over the past 20 years it has never occurred that a Czech court has sentenced someone for taking an anarchist, communist, or other left-wing approach. This is simply because no one has engaged in the spreading of hatred – for example, against the entrepreneurial class – or in calls for violence against that class or the state. The efforts of the anti-communists, mostly those of Senator Štětina, to declare communism illegal and to seek punishment for something that cannot be punished in a democracy (for example, a party’s name) have been in vain.

However, the law does sometimes contradict common sense. Senator Liana Janáčková could not be prosecuted for saying “I am a racist”, but anyone who insulted her because of her statement might be. The court might even go so far as to recognize her racism as political conviction.

From the senator’s other words about the Roma, however, and from the barbed wire she said she would like to put up around the settlement into which she had moved them, it was clear that not only was she a racist, she was proclaiming her hatred. Nevertheless, in 2006 the Czech Senate refused to strip her of her immunity and she escaped prosecution. When she used a pack of matches as her symbol during this year’s elections, the electorate understood that to stand for arson attacks on Roma families and did not re-elect her. Sometimes the voice of the people is more just than that of the Senate.

Of all the existing groups, movements and parties in the country, only the National Resistance has been recognized as a hate movement. The Supreme Court evaluated it as such when it reviewed the appeals of those who demonstrated under its name on 1 May 2007 in Brno. Even the banned Workers’ Party was not recognized as a hate group, although the Supreme Administrative Court did dissolve it for its affinity to neo-Nazism. Of course, that was an administrative proceeding, not a criminal one. A party cannot be sent to prison.

The court in Brno has probably evaluated this most recent case correctly and the sentencing is proportionate. Fingers crossed, the citizens and the state will see this case through its appeals proceedings (and any others) with justice eventually being served.