(source: TASR)
Activist Ladislav Rovinský who filed a complaint concerning the Lenin billboard pointed to the police decision on June 12 saying he will complain against the decision. He has filed a complaint, arguing that the case could become an example and recipe for other extremist groups, too.
“Neo-Nazis can place billboard with Hitler’s statement on the other side of the road. He also has a socialist slogans in which people would say: It’s true, so what,” Rovinský told Sme. “And then we’ll also pretend that it’s okay?”
On the other hand, the prosecution of artists Peter Kalmus and Ľuboš Lorenz who painted the bust of former communist leader of Czechoslovakia, Vasil Biľak, red is still ongoing, the Sme daily pointed out on June 16.
The General Prosecutor’s Office deals with a memorial revealed on February 21 in his native village of Krajná Bystrá and then spray painted red the next night in protest.
“In connection with damaging Vasil Biľak’s memorial, the law enforcement bodies will comprehensively deal with not only the severity of its damage but also with the reasons for its very creation and placement,” Prosecutor General’s Office spokeswoman Andrea Predajňová said, as quoted by the Sme daily. She added that this case will be resolved by a prosecutor from the District Prosecutor’s Office in Svidník.
On June 8, 50 public figures including Pohoda open-air festival organiser Michal Kaščák and Ivan Kamenec of the Institute of History at the Slovak Academy of Sciences supported Kalmus and Lorenzo claiming that if they will be charged they want to be charged as well for approving their acts.
The petition was signed also a political scientist Grigorij Mesežnikov, who speaks about this situation as a paradox.
“It’s about the dangerousness of those crimes,” Mesežnikov told the Sme. “The painting was maybe a controversial expression of disrespect to the man who represented the worst of the past regime. In the second case, the action is aimed against the principles of a democratic regime.”
