Slovak Police charge politician with extremism

News server Plus JEDEN DEŇ reported on 28 July that police in Slovakia have charged Marian Kotleba, the head of the ultra-right party "Kotleba-People's Party Our Slovakia" (LSNS), with extremism. In March he gave a socially vulnerable family a check for EUR 1 488, which is a number with a neo-Nazi code meaning.
The number "14", in this interpretation, represents the "14 words" ("We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children") of the late American right-wing extremist David Lane, who was sentenced to 190 years in federal prison in 1985 for multiple crimes, including acting as the getaway driver for the assassins of a Jewish talk show host in 1984. As for the double 8s, they are a reference to the Nazi greeting "Heil Hitler", as the letter "H" is the eighth in the (English) alphabet.
The number "1488", therefore, is used as a symbol of the racist movement advocating for "White Supremacy". If convicted, Kotleba, who is currently the Governor of the Banská Bystrica Region, faces imprisonment of anywhere between six months to three years.
Police say Kotleba abused an act of charity to demonstrate his sympathy for a movement that has espoused ethnic, national, racial and religious hatred, Plus JEDEN DEŇ reported. Kotleba is now the third member of LSNS to be charged with extremism.
The party has not confirmed the charges. "Marian Kotleba has not yet been delivered anything," LSNS Vice-Chair Milan Uhrík told news server HNonline.
Don't miss:
- Slovakia: Three skinheads assault Romani mother and her children with racist abuse
- Czech and Slovak ministers call for ways to combat radicalism
- Slovakia: Romani residents of Zborov tell Romea.cz that police beat children, pregnant women, threatened retribution if video released
- Slovak Prosecutor-General files motion to dissolve Kotleba's party
Related articles:
- Czech Republic's second city sees Romani refugees from Ukraine sleeping in train station after refusing detention center accommodation
- Czech Police charge bodybuilder for praising Russia's invasion of Ukraine and expressing desire for a war in which he could kill anybody
- Czech ex-lawmaker gets six months, suspended for one year, for his remark about the WWII-era concentration camp for Roma at Lety u Písku
- German court sentences 93-year-old Holocaust denier to a year behind bars, she may appeal
- Slovak Supreme Court reduces politician's prison sentence for promoting neo-Nazism and paroles him, proceedings were disrupted by bomb threat
- Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová met with Roma students on the occasion of World Roma Day
- Czech Constitutional Court rejects complaint from man responsible for desecrating memorial to the Holocaust and its Romani victims at Lety
- Czech Police investigate bodybuilder who made death threats against Roma for looking forward to "war in the Czech Republic"
- Slovak Govt Plenipotentiary for Romani Communities joins aid effort for refugees from Ukraine, monitoring patrols will make sure Romani refugees are assisted too
- Slovak firefighter tells ROMEA TV his remarks about Roma from Ukraine were based on what they themselves told him and the Czech reporter misunderstood him
- Czech extremist praises ombudsman for objecting to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, deputy ombudswoman criticizes those objections
- Slovak Interior Minister refuses to comment on firefighter's racist remarks about Romani refugees from Ukraine