The musician Jaroslav Pagáč, known by the name Reborn, is legally acquitted of the indictment that accused him of the crime of producing and distributing extremist materials. The Supreme Court (NS) of the Slovak Republic decided on this in a public session on January 22. The judgment is final.
“The Supreme Court rejected the prosecutor’s appeal as unfounded. The Senate came to the conclusion that the decision of the Specialized Criminal Court (ŠTS) is legal and correct,” NS spokeswoman Alexandra Važanová told TASR.
He acquitted Pagač of extremism charges in May 2023 single judge of the Banská Bystrica workplace ŠTS. However, the judgment was not final. The prosecutor, who proposed a prison sentence of four years for him, appealed and the NS had to decide.
The musician then claimed that the whole process is fabricated, he is innocent and has asked for a full acquittal. Supporters also came to the court to support him. In his closing speech, his defense attorney Peter Kupka pointed to the lack of proof of any intent or the existence of the interpretation of the symbols in question as extremist material. This involved, for example, the depiction of the symbol of the black sun and the spinning wheel, which, according to the defense, is an Old Slavic and Old Germanic symbol of the sun, not an extremist one.
“I did it, we did it. Legally freed after almost six years….” responded Pagač on the social network in connection with the current judgment of the Supreme Court.
The prosecutor initially filed the indictment against four individuals and one legal entity. In 2017, they should have teamed up with the aim of securing production as well as spreading extremist materials via the Internet on a social network.
The production and printing of various clothes with the theme of right-wing extremism were to be ensured by two persons. Another was to offer clothes to people through a social network with the aim of selling and distributing themincluding other items, mainly CD carriers and tags with extremist content, which were sent by mail by a fourth person.
