Czech Constitutional Court rejects extremist's charge that judge is biased

The ČT 24 news channel reports that the Czech Constitutional Court has rejected a complaint filed by Patrik Vondrák, the former chair of the Prague cell of the (neo)Nazi Worker’s Party (Dělnická strana), which was dissolved by the Supreme Administrative Court earlier this year. In the complaint, Vondrák alleged that Judge Věra Bártová of the Prague 1 District Court is biased. The extremist is currently on trial in Prague on suspicion of supporting and promoting a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms. Constitutional Court spokesperson Jana Pelcová has confirmed his complaint was rejected. Vondrák is still waiting for the Constitutional Court to decide on yet another complaint he filed regarding being taken into custody.

Vondrák’s attorney attempted to prove the judge’s alleged bias by describing what took place at a hearing in his case this past July. The defendants’ family members allegedly could not make it into the courtroom, nor could other members of the public interested in the case. Vondrák alleges that about 10 people were already seated in the courtroom prior to the doors being opened, one of whom he allegedly recognized as the human rights activist Markus Pape along with several plainclothes police officers. According to Vondrák’s complaint, the circumstances of the trial “blatantly correspond to the situation made famous by the trial of the members of the band The Plastic People of the Universe in 1976.”

The Prague 1 District Court rejected Vondrák’s objection that the judge is biased. The appeals court also rejected a motion that the judge be removed from the case. In his constitutional complaint, Vondrák unsuccessfully proposed that appeals court verdict be overturned.

According to the police, Vondrák is also a leading representative of the extreme-right National Resistance (Národní odpor). He is one of eight defendants on trial before the Prague 1 District Court. According to the case file, all of them have contributed in various degrees to four separate crimes, including posting promotional stickers for National Resistance. In December 2008, the defendants posted materials reading “Freely – Nationally – Socially – Odpor.org Resistance! Resistance! Resistance!” near Palacké náměstí in Prague, where an anti-fascist meeting was to take place a few days later.

Police wiretapped the extremists, followed their meetings at the U Kalendů beer hall, and also monitored the posting of the stickers. Five of the defendants are charged with violating the law by promoting National Resistance, which is the most militant neo-Nazi movement in the Czech Republic. “The stickers included a link to…the web pages www.odpor.org…through which texts are distributed that disseminate and promote Nazi and neo-Nazi ideology, i.e., the ideology of racist anti-Semitism…and the thesis that the white race is superior,” the charges read.

According to the charges, Vondrák also contributed to organizing a gathering and march on 6 June 2009 in Jihlava. A city official dispersed the event immediately after it began. It had been announced as a commemorative march to honor the memories of the victims of WWII, but the real purpose, according to the file, was to honor the memory of fallen Wehrmacht soldiers and members of the SS. The group also faces charges of organizing a white power music concert.