Convicted far-right leaders subject to Czech presidential pardon
Published on Wednesday, 02 January 2013 23:07 Written by ČTK
The partial amnesty declared by Czech President Vaclav Klaus also applies to former leaders of the ultra-right Workers´ Party (DS) who have been given suspended sentences for displays of extremism at a May Day demonstration in Brno in 2009, the DSSS party writes on its website.
The DSSS (Workers´ Party of Social Justice) was established by former DS leaders after the DS was dissolved as extremist, racist, chauvinist, xenophobic and pro-Nazi in February 2010.
Many DS members then switched to the successor party, the DSSS.
The DSSS leadership described the pardoning of its chairman Tomas Vandas and deputy heads Jiri Stepanek, Petr Kotab and Martin Zbela as "belated" satisfaction."
Vandas, former DS chairman, was in January 2012 given suspended four-month sentence with 20-month probation for his statements including that about "the devastating tsunami wave of immigration."
The same sentence was imposed on Kotab while Zbela and Stepanek were given seven- and eight-month suspended sentences, respectively.
Klaus´s amnesty pardons, among others, suspended sentences lower than two years and halts criminal proceedings that have been dragging on for more than eight years.
Credit: České Noviny