Jihlava, South Moravia, March 17 (CTK) – Extra-parliamentary National Democracy (ND) leader Adam B. Bartos and ND member Ladislav Zemanek are guilty in the case of an anti-Semitic text at the grave of Anezka Hruzova, murdered in 1899, in Polna, south Moravia, judge Tereza Jedlickova has ruled.
Leopold Hilsner, from the local Jewish ghetto in Polna, was falsely found guilty of the murder of Hruzova, a 19-year-year Czech Christian woman, and sentenced to death. The punishment was later commuted to life imprisonment. He was only pardoned in 1918.
The cause celebre triggered anti-Semitism in the Czech Lands at the beginning of the 20th century. It was challenged by Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, who later became the first Czechoslovak president (1918-35). He denied the theory of a ritual murder, due to which he was a target of hateful public attacks.
Bartos and Zemanek displayed a sign with a photograph of the murdered woman and a text reading: “Her death cemented the Czech nation and it showed the urgent necessity to solve the Jewish question. The Jewish question has not been resolved in a satisfactory manner yet.” Both men signed the text.
Jedlickova issued a criminal order in the case, but it has not taken effect, the portal iDnes.cz has written.
She has not disclosed the exact penalty. Jedlickova said she would elaborate after her decision was delivered to all defendants.
Bartos said he was surprised at the speed of the decision as the charges had only been brought last week.
He said he wanted a trial to be held before a court and that he would raise a protest against the criminal order.
After the text became known, Michal Dolezel, Brno’s councillor for the Live Brno political movement, filed a legal complaint against Bartos and Zemanek.
According to Dolezel, Bartos and Zemanek thereby incited to racial hatred and to a solution to the Jewish question, which is an expression directly connected with the Holocaust.
