Complaint filed with Czech Constitutional Court over brutal police intervention in Krupka

Last Friday, the “We Don’t Want (Neo)Nazis in Ústí” Initiative (“V Ústí (neo)nacisty nechceme”) and residents of the town of Krupka filed a complaint over the dispersal of an ecumenical religious service by the Czech Police. The service took place in Karel Čapek street in Krupka on 9 April 2011, the same day on which the Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS) and organizations affiliated with it marched down that same street to the Maršov housing estate, where many Roma people live. The service was jointly conducted by a local priest, Father Ludvík Šťastný of the Greek Catholic Church, and Brother Pavel Šindler, a pastor with the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren (Českobratrská církev evangelická). Police dispersed the service, which was allegedly preventing the Nazis from entering the Roma ghetto, by using armed transport carriers, stun grenades, and truncheons.

“For many worshipers, that police intervention was the worst experience of their entire lives and a severe shock. They feel their rights guaranteed by the Constitution have been violated, and that is the main reason we are filing this complaint,” explained Miroslav Brož, spokesperson for the Initiative and a plaintiff himself. “Our lawyers came to the conclusion, upon analyzing the Law on Assembly, that one part of the law, specifically Section 10 paragraph 2 letter b), contravenes the Constitution, and we are therefore asking the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court to annul that section,” Brož said.

“If the Constitutional Court were to grant our complaint and declare that the Czech Police intervention on 9 April was a violation of our constitutionally guaranteed rights, it would certainly represent satisfaction to us for what happened, at least symbolically, and we hope it would have a certain influence on the behavior of police in relation to ecumenical services in the future,” said Evžen Martínek, another plaintiff. “However, if the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court were to annul letter b) of the second paragraph of Section 10 of the Law on Assembly, that would mean an enormous change for the holding of demonstrations in the Czech Republic. Legally, two gatherings would be permitted to occur at the same place and it would be up to the Czech Police to restrict potential conflicts between participants instead of dispersing one of the gatherings as police have done so far with reference to that regulation,” he explained.

“The logistics of preparing a constitutional complaint was a demanding task for an informal initiative that has no bank account, corporate status, employees or even an office. Everyone’s work was volunteer, done out of personal conviction, and I would primarily like to thank the lawyers,” Brož said.

The filing of the constitutional complaint is yet another step taken by the civic initiative in relation to the police intervention against the peaceful ecumenical service. In the past the initiative has filed a motion for the Czech Interior Minister’s Inspectorate to investigate the intervention, written an open letter to the Czech Interior Minister, and arranged for him to be questioned during a session of the Czech lower house.

The “We Don’t Want (Neo)Nazis in Ústí” Initiative was created in April 2009 as a response to the Nazis’ intention to march through the town of Ústí nad Labem. It brings together engaged individuals and institutions for whom it is unacceptable that (neo)Nazis march through the streets of Czech towns.