Czech lower house speaker condemns MP’s visit to neo-Nazi convicted of racially-motivated murder

Czech MP Jan Hamáček (Czech Social Democratic Party – ČSSD), the speaker of
the lower house, has commented on the recent visit paid by Czech MP Tomio
Okamura to Vlastimil Pechanec, who is serving time for the racially-motivated
murder of a Romani man, calling the visit “extremely inappropriate and
unfortunate.” Hamáček posted the comment through Facebook as follows: “In my
opinion this casts a negative light not only on Mr Okamura and his party, but on
the entire Chamber of Deputies.”

Okamura, the chair of the Dawn of Direct Democracy (Úsvit přímé demokracie)
movement, was accompanied by Úsvit’s vice-chair Jaroslav Novák when he visited
the prison in Pardubice on Friday 25 January where Pechanec is serving a
sentence for the racially-motivated murder of Otto Absolon. The Úsvit
representatives want a retrial for Pechanec, as they believe his initial trial
was manipulated; the petition for a retrial is to be drafted by attorney Klára
Samková, who is also the leading candidate for Úsvit in the upcoming elections
to the EP.

Czech Senator Jiří Dienstbier has also criticized Okamura’s move, calling it
a political tactic to win over right-wing extremists. Dienstbier has been tapped
to serve as human rights minister in the incoming cabinet.

Pechanec was convicted of having stabbed Absolon twice in the abdomen in July
2001 and was sent to prison for 17 years in 2003. Prior to this incident he had
a record of committing both felony and misdemeanor violence against
randomly-selected members of the Romani community.