Czech senator Janackova's deputy suspected of racism too

The Czech police have accused Jiri Jezersky (Independents), former deputy mayor of an Ostrava district, of defamation of a nation, ethnic group, race and religion, the daily Pravo writes today.

Jezersky was a deputy to mayor of the Ostrava-Marianske Hory and Hulvaky, now senator Liana Janackova (Independents), who faces the same accusation.

Jezersky faces up to two years in prison if found guilty, Ostrava state attorney’s office spokesman David Baros told Pravo.

Janackova and Jezersky were accused based on a recording allegedly taped at a 2006 meeting of the housing department of the district authority. Both of them are suspected of racist utterances about Romanies living in the Bedriska locality that is part of their former district (more here…).

"Give me a licence to own a rifle and permission to shoot them all and I’ll go and do it," Jezersky said about the Romanies in Bedriska according to the recording.

Janackova was heard saying: "Unfortunately, I’m a racist, I disagree with the integration of Gypsies and their living across the district. Unfortunately, we’ve chosen Bedriska, therefore they will be there, behind a tall fence, with electricity."

She also spoke about excessively multiplying Gypsies and about dynamite to blow them up with.

Janackova denies the statements she made in her capacity as Ostrava-Marianske Hory and Hulvaky district mayor in 2006 being aimed against Romanies.

"This was no attack on any ethnic group, I was simply solving the situation in the district," she told CTK on Monday.

The police recently asked the Senate to strip Janackova of her immunity as an MP so that she can be accused. The Senate immunity committee is to decide on the case next week.

Nine organisations, including Romany ones, have lodged a criminal complaint against Janackova and Jezersky over her utterances in 2006.