Czech court acquits German neo-Nazi over 2011 speech

Yesterday the Municipal Court in Brno acquitted German neo-Nazi Robin Siener of defamation, which the state prosecutor charged him with committing in 2011 at a 1 May demonstration by the Workers' Youth in Brno. At the right-wing extremist meeting, Siener spoke about "multicultural terrorism" and a cheap workforce flooding Europe, among other matters.
He faced up to two years in prison if convicted. Siener claimed he was innocent.
The verdict has not yet taken effect. Prosecutor Jan Petrásek might appeal to the Regional Court in Brno.
Petrásek is taking time to consider an appeal. Siener left the courtroom obviously satisfied.
"My speech was social criticism. I talked about these problems the way we talk about them in Germany, and if it's not a problem in Germany, then I don't know why it should be a problem in the Czech Republic," he told the Czech News Agency.
Judge Dagmar Bordovká said in her explanation of the verdict that the speech had been demagogic, xenophobic, and bordered on the criminal. She believed it was a critique of conditions under capitalism and in the EU, but said it was not possible to infer from Siener's words that he had broken the law and committed a felony.
Expert witness Josef Zouhar's opinion of Siener's speech was unequivocal. "Racism, violence, hatred," Zouhar drily told Czech TV.
Siener spoke to a crowd of approximately 500 right-wing extremists about the fact that a cheap workforce from the East was flooding Europe and that the time would come "when it will be necessary to expel them from the fortress of Europe." He also said that no great poets or scientists had ever come, for example, from Africa or India.
The demonstration took place on Koliště Street in Brno and was convened by the Workers' Youth (Dělnická mládež - DM). That group is linked to the right-wing extremist Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS).
Members of the DSSS leadership have been fined and put on probation because of the radical attitude toward minorities expressed in their own 1 May speeches given at a demonstration in 2009 in Brno. The party's activities continue those of the neo-Nazi Workers' Party (Dělnická strana - DS), which was dissolved in 2010 by the Czech Supreme Administrative Court.
Don't miss:
- Czech Police charge man with producing clothing with neo-Nazi symbols
- German legislators say police work on neo-Nazi murders so flawed as to border on sabotage
- Czech trial of eight charged with promoting neo-Nazism to resume
- Czech conservatives, neo-Nazis to protest LGBT pride event tomorrow
- Czech Republic: Two neo-Nazis charged in 2012 arson
- German state of Bavaria bans largest neo-Nazi organization in the country
- Analysis: Vlastimil Pechanec - neo-Nazi martyr or hard-core murderer?
- Czech Republic: Arrested neo-Nazi also sought by Austria
- FARE: Homophobia, neo-Nazi symbols going unpunished at World Cup
- Czech ultra-right party invites German neo-Nazis to tomorrow's 1 May demo in Prague
- Roma residents of Brno, Czech Republic thank those who stood up to neo-Nazis on 1 May
- Czech Television reporter responds to criticism of his reporting from Brno on 1 May
- Commentary: Czech Television report from Brno on 1 May - Václav Havel looking to brawl?
- Dozens of public figures protest untruthful reporting by Czech Television of 1 May events
- Online reporting from 1 May counter-protest against neo-Nazis in Brno, Czech Republic
- BRNO BLOCKS has proof of the neo-Nazi background of the 1 May march, calls for its ban
- Czech celebrities on why they will demonstrate against neo-Nazis 1 May in Brno
- Czech Constitutional Court receives municipal complaint over 1 May march by extremists
Related articles:
- For a third time, Slovak court acquits police of brutalizing Romani children a decade ago, prosecutor appealing
- Czech expert says haters' attention is fixating on Roma again, "migration" as a subject is over
- Czech intelligence: Right-wing extremists return to anti-Roma rhetoric, public tolerance of racism and xenophobia in politics rising
- Czech fan of ultra-nationalist party gets suspended sentence for wearing Nazi symbols to demonstration
- Germany: Right-wing extremists "patrolling" in Berlin
- Romani rapper Alex Dzurko's new video criticizes "Facebook warriors" and racists, laments social divisions
- Czech trial begins of brutal, allegedly racially-motivated assault by non-Romani adults on Romani children
- Poland: Ultra-right members arrested for planning terrorist attack days after ultra-right march in the capital
- Thirty years of freedom: Roma in the Czech Republic wanted totalitarianism to end, value the chance to do business, lament antigypsyism
- German Govt approves measures to combat right-wing extremism, requires social media firms to report IP addresses of users making death threats
- Czech Regional Court returns online hate speech case about death threats against first-graders to lower court, more evidence needed
- Michal Mižigár: What democracy brought us Romani people in the Czech Republic in the 1990s
Tags:
1. máj 2011, Brno, DS, DSSS, Extremism, Neo-Nazism, Racism, SoudHEADLINE NEWS
