The Czech police started the prosecution of the chairman of the opposition movement of the SPD Tomia Okamura concerning controversial posters from last year’s election campaign. The announcement of the start of the prosecution came to Okamur in the data box, she said on Thursday. The politician threatens three years of imprisonment, informs the TASR rapporteur in Prague. Last week, MEPs decided on the police request. 81 deputies voted in favor of the prosecution, 62 was against.
SPD movement last summer As part of the election campaign, a large billboard brought to Wenceslas Square, where a man was dark skin with a bloody face and held a knife. On the poster was the slogan “Lack of health care will not be resolved by surgeons from imports” and also “Stop EU Migration Pact”. The criminal complaint in response to this was filed by Deputy Mayor of Prague for Culture Jiří Pospíšil and also the non -profit organization Romea.
According to police, posters had racist and xenophobic podtext, Okamura therefore suspects from incitement to hatred of a group of persons or restricting their rights and freedoms. According to Okamur and SPD, however, it is an effort to limit their political opinion and freedom of expression.
“In our opinion, the aim of the government coalition is the criminalization of opposition views, and in the end, the effort to not allow the SPD to participate in this year’s elections to the Chamber of Deputies,” stated the movement in a press release and added that he wanted to defend himself. Okamura has previously resisted that the poster had nothing to do with racism at all and is only an allegory to the current situation and also a response to the acceptance of the EU Migration Pact.
