Slovak Prosecutor: Fascist pandemic is just as dangerous as COVID-19, trial of extreme politician begins tomorrow
Tomáš Honz of the Office of the Special Prosecutor in Slovakia has asked the court to consider arresting the leader of the People’s Party Our Slovakia (ĽSNS), Slovak MP Marián Kotleba, in order to bring him to trial. Kotleba is accused of having committed a felony last year when he donated checks to three families in the amount of EUR 1488.
The numeral “1488” is seen by Honz as a neo-Nazi code. The first two digits of the numeral, “14”, reference the 14 words of neo-Nazi terminology in the slogan “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children”, which was formulated by the late David Lane, a member of the Ku-klux-klan in the United States and a convicted felon.
As for the number “88”, it stands for the Nazi greeting “Heil Hitler”. The letter “H” is the eighth in the alphabet.
Kotleba was meant to stand trial on 15 May, but ignored a subpeona to appear in court, allegedly because the National Assembly was in session. When asked whether it isn’t common for MPs to excuse themselves from attending legislative sessions in person if they have other engagements, Kotleba’s defense attorney said that the legislature was mainly meeting to address the crisis associated with COVID-19 and that it was therefore essential the lawmakers attend in person.
Honz responded to that excuse for failing to appear in court by saying the fasist pandemic is just as dangerous as COVID-19, indicating that while he disagreed with the excuse for Kotleba not appearing, he respected the court’s decision to accept it. The judge postponed the case until 28-29 May, mainly because Kotleba does not want to be tried in absentia.
Kotleba’s attorney objected that the MP will apparently not be able to appear in court on that date either because the National Assembly will be convening again. The judge ignored that claim and the trial is expected to begin tomorrow.
It is a fact that during the previous legislature, Kotleba missed 21 sessions of the National Assembly for different reasons, none of which was as serious as a court appearance. He excused himself several times because of family obligations and a couple of times because he was simultaneously serving as the Governor the of Banská Bystrica Region and had to deal with those obligations.
