Prosecutor drops prosecution of kebab seller over anti-Jewish lyrics

The public prosecutor canceled the prosecution of a 35-year-old foreigner, whom the police accused of defaming a nation, race, ethnic group or other group of people due to hanging a poster with anti-Jewish text in a kebab restaurant in the center of Pilsen. According to him, even if it is a specific “decoration” of the establishment in the context of the time, no criminal offense according to the criminal code can be found in the man’s actions. Deputy District Attorney Ivana Hostašová announced this on the website on Friday.

According to her, the pasted posters commented on historical moments of the Jewish people and contained inscriptions criticizing world powers. At the same time, Hostašová specified that the man was charged exclusively for posting his opinions in the establishment, no other expressions of his opinions were covered by the resolution to initiate criminal prosecution.

The police announced the man’s accusation on the network a week ago https://twitter.com/PolicieCZ/status/1717884749610434712. The seller who put up the poster made no secret of his negative opinion of Israel. A man told ČTK last week that he does not consider the radical Palestinian movement Hamas, whose members killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, to be evil during the attack on Israel on October 7.

“These Jews are the people who killed even the prophets like sheep. For this reason, God cursed them. These Jews are the ones who call the pure Virgin Mary, praised by God, unchaste. These Jews are the ones who want to kill the prophet Jesus,” read three colorful sheets of paper pasted first at the entrance to the cafeteria, and later the man moved them inside. The poster was displayed for several days. He was subsequently confiscated and taken away by the police when they began to deal with the matter based on the report.

On October 7, Hamas caught Israel by surprise with a massive attack from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, where, according to Israeli authorities, it killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and dragged over 220 people back to Gaza. Israel has been carrying out airstrikes ever since. According to the Palestinian Authority, over 9,000 Palestinians, including approximately 3,800 children, have died in Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip since the beginning of this war.