Prague, May 24 (CTK) – Czech inspection checked three cases of suspected extremism among the police, customs or prison officers last year, which is two cases fewer than in 2015, and none of them has resulted in levelling accusations for the time being, an annual report on extremism shows.
The military police, on their part, have been dealing with the case of a soldier who used the Nazi salute in public and physically attacked guests in a restaurant last year, the report says.
The General Inspection of Security Forces (GIBS) in 2016 checked the case of a customs officer suspected of inclining to extremism. He had a positive relation to firearms which he promoted on social networks and elsewhere. Nevertheless, the check did not find him having violated the law, the report says.
The GIBS also checked the suspicion that a prison’s civilian employee granted advantages to the prisoners spreading xenophobic and nationalist views among the rest of the inmates. The suspicion was not proved, however, and the case was shelved.
The last suspicious case concerned police officers who allegedly verbally threatened members of the Romany minority. The case continues to be investigated.
Armed forces’ representatives have told CTK that they try to unveil potential recruits’ extremist inclination still before admitting them to the relevant units.
The applicants are asked to sign a declaration of honour in this respect and have to produce all information about their criminal record. “We also check the applicants’ reputation in their place of residence,” the Prison Service’s spokeswoman Petra Kucerova said.
The police, too, apply a similar procedure, the Police Presidium’s spokeswoman Ivana Nguyenova said, adding that psychological tests are another way to help unveil the applicants’ xenophobic views or inclination to violence or racism.
The military, too, is doing its best to prevent extremism in its ranks, also in cooperation with the Military Police and the Military Intelligence (VZ) that are in contact with their civilian counterparts, the General Staff’s spokesman Jan Sulc said.
The VZ did not uncover any increase in the activities with an extremist subtext in the Czech military last year, according to the report.
