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Current AffairsPolice crack down on women’s branch of Czech neo-Nazi movement
The Czech police have cracked down on a group called Resistance Women
Unity, a women´s branch of the Czech neo-Nazi movement National
Resistance. Fifteen women were arrested and charged with promoting and
supporting a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms. I
spoke to Miroslav Mareš of Masaryk University in Brno, one of the Czech
Republic’s leading experts on far-right extremism, to find out more about
the role of women in neo-Nazi groups in the present day Czech Republic. More
Current AffairsExtremist lawyer claims judicial expert biased because of Jewish background
Michal Mazel, a highly-respected judicial expert on extremism in the Czech
Republic (whose testimony was crucial in such cases as the Vítkov arson
attack and the dissolution of the rightwing Workers’ Party), has resigned
after an objection was filed against his assessment in a current case.
Lawyer Petr Kočí filed the objection on behalf of his client, a member of
the extremist Workers’ Party for Social Justice, charged with inciting
ethnic hatred, that Mr Mazel is biased because of his Jewish background.
For the judicial expert the objection was the last straw; the move also
shocked others, fuelling calls for the lawyer to be disbarred. More
Current AffairsExpert on extremism: racism in mainstream politics poses bigger threat than ultra-right groups
The special Czech police squad for fighting organized crime has warned that
ultra-right groupings in the country have been gathering strength and are
now better organized and more active than before the 2010 clamp-down on
extremism. The Workers Party, banned by a court ruling in 2010, has
successfully regrouped into the Workers Party of Social Justice and
ultra-right activists are making an all out effort to use the wave of
anti-Romany sentiment in the north of the country to their best advantage.
So far the public has shown little sign of supporting them –but does that
mean there is no potential for extremism in the Czech Republic? A question
for Klára Kalibová, a lawyer who specializes in hate crime. More
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