Prague, Oct 11 (CTK) – Czechoslovak democratic journalist Ferdinand Peroutka’s granddaughter Terezie Kaslova has filed a recourse with the Supreme Court over President Milos Zeman’s accusation of Peroutka of pro-Nazi leanings, Czech Television said yesterday.
Kaslova demands an apology from the Presidential Office that would be more comprehensive than that on which an appeals court decided earlier this month.
The Presidential Office has also filed a recourse.
Peroutka (1895-1978) was a prominent democratic journalist during the interwar period. He was imprisoned by the Nazi regime in 1939-1945. He left the country after the 1948 communist coup and later worked for Radio Free Europe. He died in the USA.
At a conference last year, Zeman said that Peroutka published the article “Hitler is a Gentleman” in his Pritomnost magazine, probably in 1936.
Historians have warned that Peroutka never wrote the article in question and that it was written by a different journalist.
Zeman insists on the view that he had read the text about Hitler.
“We have received the complainant’s recourse that was filed against the statements with which the court did not comply with the complaint,” Prague 1 district court spokeswoman Alena Novotna said.
The district court which dealt with the case as the first instance will pass the file to the Supreme Court in Brno, she added.
In the spring, a court ruled that Kaslova was fully right, but the appeals court mitigated the verdict.
The Presidential Office has to apologise for Zeman’s statement that Peroutka had written the article in question. On the other hand, he does not have to apologise for having said that intellectuals were fascinated by Hitler’s perverted ideology.
Kaslova disagrees with the verdict and wants to revert it by the recourse.
The Presidential Office agrees with the wording of the verdict, but it argues that by transferring the responsibility from Zeman to the Czech Republic, a precedent could be set and the Czech Republic might face a number of legal complaints.
The Presidential Office has asked for a postponement of the apology. Lawyers say the recourse cannot postpone it.
As the Presidential Office did not publish the apology by the ordered deadline, Kaslova is exacting it by distraint.
“We have no problem with the apology on which the appeals court decided. Zeman has repeatedly stressed this. We are ready to do so,” Ovcacek said.
“We are dealing with the single question. It is up to the Supreme Court to make a decision on who should sign and say the apology,” he added.
“At the moment, it is the Czech Republic. We believe that this is not a suitable solution,” Ovcacek said.
