Czech MP will not be prosecuted for controversial remarks about communist history

Czech Television reports that police have shelved the case of Czech MP Marta Semelová (Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia – KSČM), who will not be prosecuted for her controversial remarks about events such as the murder of Milada Horáková or the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops. Pavel Šváb, spokesperson for the South Moravian Regional Police, confirmed the information to the Czech News Agency.  

Šváb said police had commissioned an expert on extremism to analyze the MP’s remarks and found that she has apparently not broken the law. The MP faced up to 10 years in prison for supporting a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms.

"Sometimes in such cases it is relatively difficult to prove a violation," prosecutor Jan Petrásek told the Czech News Agency. The Municipal State Prosecutor in Brno received two criminal reports against the MP several months ago, one from the mayor of the Brno-Starý Lískovec municipal department, Vladan Krásný (Civic Democratic Party – ODS) and one from Dušan Makovský of the ProtiAlt initiative.

Both men reported remarks made by the MP on the ČT24 television channel’s "Hyde Park" program about the trial of the politician Milada Horáková and the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. In those remarks, Semelová cast doubt on whether the confession made by Horáková during her show trial had been forced.

Horáková, a participant in the anti-Nazi resistance and a member of the National Socialists, was condemned to death by a communist political trial and executed. Other members of the KSČM subsequently distanced themselves from Semelová’s opinions.