Czech Committee on Immunity and Mandates failed to reach consensus on whether to strip Okamura of immunity, lower house to decide without their recommendation
The Czech Chamber of Deputies will decide on the police request to strip the chair of the "Freedom and Direct Democracy" (SPD) movement, Tomio Okamura, of his immunity from prosecution without a report from its Committee on Immunity and Mandates. The Committee was unable to reach consensus and did not adopt a recommendation on the issue.
The chair of the Committee, Helena Válková (Association of Dissatisfied Citizens – ANO) informed journalists of the outcome after the meeting. Police suspect Okamura of inciting hatred or inciting limitations on the rights of a group and its individual members in relation to the SPD’s billboard campaign last year.
The plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies should vote on whether to strip Okamura of immunity in March. Válková said neither a recommendation to express agreement with the prosecution nor to express disagreement with the prosecution got the necessary majority of votes in the Committee.
“Neither proposed resolution was adopted,” Válková said. However, both she and a vice-chair of the Committee, Pavel Staněk (Civic Democratic Party – ODS) disagree that the result of the Committee’s negotiations implies that a majority might not be found for stripping Okamura of his immunity in the plenary session.
Both the chair and the vice-chair for ODS said Committee members did not vote according to their party affiliation. Válková said she voted in favor of not recommending Okamura be stripped of immunity.
“I believe some evidence is lacking,” the Committee chair said. Another vice-chair of the Committee, Taťána Malá (ANO), voted the same way.
“After studying the file and the interrogations by the [police] commissioner and prosecutor, I came to the conclusion that the conditions for stripping him of immunity have not been met,” Malá said. Committee Vice-Chair Staněk said he abstained from voting.
“I believe this is not just quite an essential legal question, but also a moral and societal one that deserves debate in the plenary, which will definitely happen,” Staněk said. Committee member Lucie Potůčková (Mayors and Independents – STAN) said she voted for stripping Okamura of immunity.
“The prosecution at issue in this case should, in my opinion, be started against whomever engages in such behavior, it has nothing to do with their mandate in parliament, and therefore, in my opinion, there is no reason for them to be specially protected by parliamentary immunity in such a case,” Potůčková explained her reasoning to news server Seznam zprávy. Dozens of people demonstrated against stripping Okamura of his immunity on Malostranské náměstí in Prague near the Chamber of Deputies.
The protesters carried Czech flags and signs reading “Telling the truth can’t be a crime” or “Let’s unite for freedom of speech”. “I believe this Government is taking a totalitarian approach,” one protester told the Czech News Agency (ČTK).
The demonstration was convened by the PRO party of Jindřich Rajchl, who will most likely run together with Okamura in the elections to the lower house this fall. Okamura spoke at the demonstration.
The SPD billboards sparked controversy ahead of last year’s elections to the European Parliament, the regional assemblies and one-third of the Senate because of their racism. One campaign ad against the European Union’s migration pact showed a dark-skinned man wielding a bloody knife and wearing a bloody shirt along with the message: “Deficiencies in health care can’t be solved by importing ‘surgeons’. ‘Stop the EU Migration Pact!’”
Critics of the ad said it was racist and an attempt to unnecessarily scare the public. Reports of a crime were filed against it.
Another ad featured a graphic of two Romani boys smoking cigarettes and the ROMEA organization and other Romani figures filed a report of a crime against the use of that image. The graphic was created with artificial intelligence.
The accompanying message read: “They say we should go to school, but our folks couldn’t care less…” and “Welfare just for families whose children attend school!” Okamura has repeatedly rejected the idea that the SPD is racist or xenophobic and called the campaign an “allegory”.
Police and prosecutorial representatives addressed the Committee members ahead of their recent vote. Okamura did not take advantage of the opportunity to address the Committee.
Over the weekend Okamura said he did not plan to defend what he believes was a “truthful” campaign by the SPD to representatives of other political parties and to thereby legitimize what he called the “political farce” of the governing coalition. He has alleged that the campaign ads were in response to steps taken by the Government which he believes will lead to migrants “streaming” into the Czech Republic.
Okamura has also said he considers this case to be an attack on freedom of speech and an attempt to silence him.
