Prague, Aug 28 (CTK) – About 200 mainly leftist activists protested against what they call the police oppression of the ultra left scene in the centre of Prague tonight.
Some of the participants, who marched to a police station in the centre, carried red and black anarchist flags and banners reading “Freedom to Police Prisoners”, “We Do Not Want a Police State,” “The State Is a Terrorist,” and they were chanting slogans, such as “Oppression cannot stop desire for freedom” and “Another world is possible.”
Drummers were marching with them and music was also played from a sound system in a van.
Police officers accompanied the demonstrators and they also halted the traffic on the way.
The organisers question mainly the Fenix police action in which several people are prosecuted on suspicion of a terrorist attack on a train.
After a crackdown on leftist extremists in April, the police accused seven people – three of preparing a terrorist attack, two of failing to prevent a crime and one of illegal arms possession.
Though a state attorney rejected the suspects’ complaint against their prosecution, the leftist activists speak about a strange role of secret police agents who infiltrated the alleged terrorist cell.
One of the organisers of Friday’s protest said if people did not resist the police oppression, they all might end up behind bars in a fairly short time.
Activists cited a few examples of the police oppression, such as a forced eviction of squatters from a ruinous Prague estate, police interventions against anti-fascist demonstrations as well as the case of an attack on the house of Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) with Molotov cocktails in early June.
The police accused a 20-year-old Russian man, who was active in the Czech anarchist movement according to the media, of the attack.
The activists also called for a stricter supervision of the police work and the release of the accused ultra-left followers from custody and a public trial of them.
