Czech senators to deal with Janackova's case next week
The Czech Senate immunity committee is likely to start discussing the case of Senator Liana Janackova (the Independents), suspected of racist utterances, next week, the committee deputy chairman Miloslav Pelc told CTK today.
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Czech senator may face accusation for racist utterances
The police recently asked the Senate to strip Janackova of her immunity as an MP so that she can be accused of the defamation of a nation, ethnic group, race and religion.
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," Janackova told CTK today.
She would not comment on the police request concerning her parliamentary immunity.
On a recording, allegedly taped at a 2006 meeting of the housing department of her district authority, Janackova is 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 [locality], 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 later admitted her statements had been unfortunate and silly. She said she had made them in a tense atmosphere.
The Independents’ Association group of senators, of which Janackova is a member, last year called her utterances inappropriate, but did not ask her to draw consequences, such as her resignation as the Senate human rights committee deputy chairwoman.
The SNK group stated the case was a result of political struggling at the Ostrava-Marianske Hory and Hulvaky hall.
At its meeting next week the Senate immunity committee probably will not yet decide on whether Janackova will be stripped of immunity, Pelc said.
Nine organisations, including Romany ones, and seven individuals have lodged a criminal complaint against Janackova over her utterances in 2006.
