Polné – Two far-right Czech politicians have been charged with incitement to
hatred and defamation over a note they wrote supporting a 19th-century blood
libel.
The police launched criminal proceedings against Adam B. Bartos and
Ladislav Zemanek on December 20.
Bartos, chairman of National Democracy, and Zemanek, a party official, left
the signed note last Easter at a memorial to Anezka Hruzova, a 19-year-old
woman who was murdered in 1899. Bartos does not deny leaving the note.
In a case that became one of Europe’s most notorious blood libel trials,
Leopold Hilsner was sentenced to death for killing Hruzova, which attorneys
suggested was part of a Jewish ritual. Hilsner was pardoned after 18 years in
prison but never acquitted.
The note, signed by Bartos and Zemanek on behalf of the National
Democracy party, said the murder “united the Czech nation and showed the urgent
need to solve the Jewish question. The Jewish question has not been
satisfactorily dealt with to this day.”
Police from the southeastern Czech town of Jihlava said Bartos and
Zemanek left the note at the Hruzova memorial in Polna, a nearby town. They
later posted a photograph of the note on social media.
Dana Cirtkova, a spokeswoman for the Jihlava police, on Tuesday detailed
the charges but said the men could not be identified until official notices
were delivered to them. Bartos confirmed that he and his party colleague had
been charged with the crimes.
Bartos and Zemanek could be sentenced to up to three years in prison if
convicted.
