The public prosecutor has appealed against the verdict of the Banská Bystrica District Court in the case of objectionable text on election leaflets published by Marian Kotleba, former leader of the far-right nationalist organisation Slovenská Pospolitosť. The appeal will be heard by the Banská Bystrica Regional Court.
The prosecutor filed a lawsuit against Kotleba for a text which appeared on an election leaflet distributed in 2009, when Kotleba ran for president of Banská Bystrica Region. In the text, he promised to “eliminate unfair advantages for not only the Gypsy parasites”. In this way, according to the prosecutor, Kotleba committed a criminal offence by defaming a nation, race or confession. According to a blog by Slovenská Pospolitosť, an organisation previously led by Kotleba, the court wrote in its reasoning that the prosecution’s case was unjustified and the file contained no evidence proving that a criminal offence had actually been committed.
The prosecutor rejected the court’s reasoning. “I consider the evidence submitted to be sufficient,” the prosecutor told the SITA newswire on Tuesday, January 4.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.