Czech Constitutional Court upholds fine for wearing clothing with the "88" code

The Czech Constitutional Court has rejected a complaint by a promoter of the extreme right who was convicted of wearing a sweatshirt, a belt and a badge with the number 88. In ultra-right circles, that number is code for the Nazi greeting “Heil Hitler”.

The man was wearing the clothing and accessories during a Workers’ Party gathering on 1 May 2009 in Brno. According to the Czech courts, he was well aware of what the code means. The fine of CZK 10 000 has definitively taken effect.

In her constitutional complaint, attorney Klára Slámová said the mere wearing of clothing with the number 88 could not be compared to approving of genocide and Nazism. The man is said to have purchased the clothing in a normal department store and the brand is registered with the state. However, the Constitutional Court did not agree with this argument. “The plaintiff’s defense claims he was innocently wearing clothing and accessories of a certain brand, but that defense is unacceptable. It is not usual for the average consumer to cultivate an admiration for and fidelity to a specific brand such that in addition to clothing of that brand, he would also wear a badge with its logo,” the judges’ resolution, written by Miloslav Výborný, reads.

The Constitutional Court did recognize that wearing clothing with the number 88 on it cannot be a criminal act and said the context must always be considered. In this man’s case, what is essential is that he was wearing the dubious symbols to a gathering of a political party that intended to incite ethnic, national, racial and social intolerance. The Workers’ Party was later dissolved by the Supreme Administrative Court as a neo-Nazi party. Its activities are being carried on today by the Workers’ Social Justice Party. “The will to espouse Nazi ideas is not present, for example, in cases of making historical films depicting that time period, but the courts did not err in finding that the plaintiff’s behavior met this subjective criterion at a minimum in the form of indirect intention, given the the context in which the clothing was worn,” the judges’ resolution reads.No violence was committed at the 1 May gathering in 2009. About 500 promoters of the extreme right met on

náměstí Svobody (Freedom Square) and marched through the town under police supervision. Two years prior to that, their gathering ended in mass brawls with police. The extremists met in Brno again this year on 1 May, but anti-fascists blocked their march. Police-officers prevented clashes and arrested 15 people.