Action on communist crimes required

DENYING the Holocaust or other crimes connected with fascism or communism should soon become a crime in Slovakia, with jail terms of between six months and three years, according to an amendment to the Criminal Code submitted by four legislators from the Civic Conservative Party (OKS), part of the Most-Híd caucus, which parliament passed on July 13, the TASR newswire reported.

DENYING the Holocaust or other crimes connected with fascism or communism should soon become a crime in Slovakia, with jail terms of between six months and three years, according to an amendment to the Criminal Code submitted by four legislators from the Civic Conservative Party (OKS), part of the Most-Híd caucus, which parliament passed on July 13, the TASR newswire reported.

“The point is to ensure that no one gets away with denying all sorts of atrocities committed by the communist and fascist regimes,” OKS head Peter Zajac said, as quoted by TASR. “The more time goes by, the stronger the tendency not only to forget but also to trivialise the terrible things that happened under fascism and communism.”

The initiative has garnered support from a number of MPs from the governing coalition, as well as Justice Minister Lucia Žitňanská.

“We cannot only pick out good things from the past,” Zajac said. “We have to process the evil things within ourselves, as this is the only way of making sure they don't occur again.”

A similar amendment was passed by MPs in 2002 but then-president Rudolf Schuster vetoed it and parliament failed to override his veto.


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