Czech right-wing radicals found guilty of inciting hatred of Jewish people, will appeal

The chair of the ultra-right National Democracy party, Adam B. Bartoš, and his fellow party member Ladislav Zemánek are guilty of making anti-Jewish statements at the grave of Anežka Hrůzová in the Czech town of Polná. Judge Tereza Jedličková of Jihlava has handed down the verdict, which has yet to take effect.

The decision was made in the form of a criminal order instead of an open trial being held. The judge has not yet published her sentencing.

News server iDNES.cz reports that Bartoš and Zemánek will appeal. They also want a trial in court.

Czech daily Mladá fronta DNES reported that Bartoš and Zemánek left a sign one year ago at Hrůzová’s grave featuring a photograph of the murdered girl and a text signed by both of them that included the following:  "Her death brought the Czech nation together and urgently showed it the necessity of solving the Jewish question. To this day the Jewish question has not yet been satisfactorily resolved."

A report of a suspected crime in the case of the anti-Jewish text was filed by Michal Doležel, a city councillor in Brno for the "Live in Brno" (Žít Brno) political movement. News server iDNES.cz reports that the Police Commissioner, with the aid of an expert on extremism, came to the conclusion that both right-wing radicals had incited hatred of Jewish people and defamed them during their visit to Polná.

Leopold Hilsner, an inhabitant of the Jewish ghetto in Polná, was unjustly convicted of Hrůzová’s murder in 1899. She was a Christian.

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who later became the first President of Czechoslovakia, fought against the wave of anti-Semitism that arose at that time and is known in Czech history as the "Hilsner Affair". Among other matters, Masaryk did his best to refute the hypothesis that Hrůzová had become the victim of a ritual murder.