Prague, July 31 (CTK) – A Prague district court has punished former secretary of the opposition Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) movement, Jaroslav Stanik, for hate speech over the statements he made in parliament about Jews, Roma and gays, the Czech Television (CT) public broadcaster reported on Tuesday.
The court issued the respective penal order on Monday. Its spokeswoman Pavla Hajkova could not give any details about the punishment because all the participants did not receive the order yet.
If Stanik appeals the verdict, a trial would have to be held.
By issuing an order, courts may impose a suspended sentence of up to one year, home confinement, work for the public benefit or a fine.
According to eyewitnesses, Stanik said in the parliament pub last October that the Roma, Jews and homosexuals should be shot dead at birth.
Stanik, 54, was an SPD secretary and an assistant to SPD deputy Jaroslav Holik. According to Aktualne.cz, Stanik was a member of the communist police from the 1980s and later of the post-1989 Czech police. He was a long-standing member of the CSSD but was expelled from the party in 2012, when he already closely cooperated with Okamura.
Anti-EU and anti-immigration SPD chairman Tomio Okamura said Stanik is no longer an SPD member, let alone the secretary.
A state attorney charged Stanik with the crimes of fomenting hatred towards a group of people, curtailing people’s rights and freedoms and denying, challenging, approving and justifying genocide in mid-July.
