Creator of the neo-Nazi website White Media faces charges, Czech prosecutor seeks fine and probation for publishing activists' and politicians' private data
At the Municipal Court in Brno, Czech Republic, prosecutors have proposed both a fine and a suspended prison sentence for Igor Mižák, founder and manager of the White Media website, for violating the confidentiality of documents and other written information kept in private. According to the indictment, that website published more than a thousand pieces of personal data or private documents, such as correspondence from former Czech prime ministers Bohuslav Sobotka and Vladimír Špidla (both formerly with the Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD, now called SOCDEM).
Mižák resides abroad and his defense attorney says he does not believe himself to be guilty of the charges. He is therefore seeking an acquittal.
The court will announce its decision on 13 May. Mižák, according to prosecutor Jaroslav Paul, was behind the website, but lives permanently abroad.
Mižák holds Slovak citizenship. After hackers attacked the computer accounts concerned, copies of documents, their personal data, their personal phone numbers, and photographs of their personal correspondence from emails subsequently appeared on the White Media website.
Those harmed included Arab Studies scholars, employees of Amnesty International, politicians, and others who publicly speak against racism and xenophobia. In addition to the former prime ministers, those who were hacked include, for instance, philosopher and priest Tomáš Halík, the composer and singer Michael Kocáb, or Kateřina Bursíková Jacques.
Between 40 and 50 people were hacked. According to Paul, no facts were entered into evidence during the trial to refute the charges as filed.
“Who the hackers were could not be ascertained, but the documents were published to the White Media website, which was established and paid for by the defendant,” the prosecutor told the court. In the indictment he is seeking a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for 30 months.
However, in his final motion, the prosecutor proposed shortening the prison sentence and fining the defendant CZK 120,000 [EUR 4,777]. Defense counsel Filip Červenka argued that the question is whether the matter should be reviewed by a Czech court at all because the website was registered in the USA.
The defense said the entire indictment hangs in the balance because law enforcement agencies failed to identify the real perpetrators. “Mižák was the sole person whom they managed to identify, and therefore he is on trial,” he told the court.
Červenka said Mižák merely offered to host the website and never checked its content, which he argued was directed by those who used the website. Mižák therefore, according to his attorney, had no idea that the content was illegal.
The computer account of then-PM Sobotka was hacked in late 2015. The White Media website subsequently claimed to have accessed classified information there.
The Interior Ministry rejected that claim, but the website published part of Sobotka’s correspondence. The subjects of that correspondence were the financing of sports, the management of the public broadcaster Czech Radio, polls ahead of the elections, and the refugee crisis.
Sobotka was prime minister from 2014-2017. Several of the hacked parties have joined a proceedings seeking compensation for non-pecuniary harm.
The compensation they seek ranges from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of crowns. For instance, both Sobotka and Špidla seek CZK 100,000 [EUR 4,000] each.
The website published documents and pieces of data numbering in the low thousands from 2012-2016. The website was operational until 2019, after which it was blocked.
In addition to texts, the website also featured videos attacking, for example, immigrants, especially of African origin, Muslims, and Romani people. It also published lists of names of people who had publicly spoken out against hatred towards people from different cultures.
