Čeněk Růžička: We demand review of the police procedure over Okamura's defamation of Romani Holocaust victims

The chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Romani Holocaust (Výbor pro odškodnění romského holocaustu – VPORH) Čeněk Růžička,, the ROMEA organization, Michal Miko of the Slovo 21 association and Miroslav Kováč of the Equal Opportunities Party (Strana rovných příležitostí – SRP) have sent the District State Prosecutor for Prague 5 a motion to review the police procedure in the investigation of a report that Tomio Okamura, chair of the "Dawn of Direct Democracy" movement (Úsvit), committed the felony of denying, questioning, approving and justifying genocide. "In this matter we must take advantage of all the options afforded us by law. We cannot close our eyes to the kind of defamation of the memory of the Romani victims of the Holocaust that Tomio Okamura has perpetrated," Růžička previously told news server Romea.cz.   

On the eve of Roma Genocide Remembrance Day earlier this year, Okamura trampled on the memory of the victims of the camp at Lety by Písek when, in a statement for the political tabloid ParlamentniListy.cz, he spoke of the camp as a "lie and a myth". Okamura claimed no one had been killed in the camp and that its prisoners had died as a result of old age and diseases they themselves brought into the camp beacuse of their previous traveling lifestyle. 

Police sent a response of several brief paragraphs to those who had reported the crime, stating that they had performed a "qualified evaluation" of the criminal report and that, after undertaking an investigation, they had come to the conclusion that "facts did not come to light that would reasonably suggest a crime has been committed." Police decided to act outside the framework of a criminal proceedings in this case, using a measure that would not be subjected to any formal requirements.

The police have not provided any sort of justification for their decision and it is not, therefore, possible to evaluate whether the officers involved actually did thoroughly investigate the case. Mr Růžička, the ROMEA organization, Mr Miko and Mr Kováč reject the police’s conclusions and are convinced that their procedure for evaluating this criminal report was incorrect.

Those who reported the crime also emphasize that they themselves had already referred to the necessary facts in their criminal report. Specific historical and scholarly resources as well as the jurisprudence of international courts testify to the illegality of Okamura’s behavior.