The court acquitted the teacher who denied the war in Ukraine

“We believe that in terms of ethics and how a teacher should act, the defendant can be criticized for many things, but she cannot be viewed as Master Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake for his opinions,” said the chairwoman Hana Chaloupková of the Appeals Chamber. In terms of criminal law, according to the court, her conduct did not reach such a level that it could be punished by the means of criminal law.

According to public prosecutor Ondřej Šťastný, the District Court for Prague 6 evaluated the whole matter incorrectly and constantly trivializes the very serious act of the defendant. “The defendant questioned and denied the war crimes committed by the Russian Federation on the territory of the Republic of Ukraine,” said Šťastný. According to him, a primary school teacher has objectively given authority, high responsibility and a strong influence on pupils and on the formation of their opinions and outlook on the world, and it is therefore inaccessible for her to lie to primary school pupils about such existential matters as war.

“She lied to them that Vladimir Putin was faced with a situation that he allegedly had to deal with somehow, consisting of the brutal slaughter of Russians by ‘Ukrainian Nazis,'” said Šťastný as an example.

There is no war in Kyiv, the teacher told the pupils. He will go to court

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According to Bednářová, the prosecutor did not present any stronger argument for the indictment, which thus suffers from a lack of evidence. She therefore called her accusations “fabricated and absurd”. In her words, Bednářová “stated the facts concerning the history of a country”. “This state is prosecuting me for facts that cannot be denied and are notorious today,” said Bednářová. “How will those who spread anti-Russian sentiments, lies and demagoguery be prosecuted? (…) We hear from the beginning that Ukraine will beat Russia. But no one told us that a nuclear power is invincible,” she continued and, among other things, also mentioned that everyone will still be surprised how the investigation into the Buča incident turns out.

She recommended a disinformation server to the students

Bednářová was accused of denying genocide, for which she was threatened with six months to three years in prison. Two years ago, during a Czech lesson, the former teacher explained to the eighth-grade pupils of Na Dlouhé lán Elementary School in Prague 6 that nothing is happening in Kyiv, that there is no war in Ukraine, or what alleged atrocities Ukrainians were supposed to have committed against the Russians in the Donbass, i.e. the same thing , what Russian propaganda says. “When you look at Kyiv, what are the cameras from the city. Just yesterday, I deleted it, coincidentally I ran out of a picture of contemporary Kyiv. It’s like nothing is happening there,” she claimed, among other things. She also advised the students to get information from the disinformation server Protiproud. One of the students recorded her performance.

You are eliminating a deserving cantor, the teacher rejected the indictment for denying the genocide in Ukraine

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Bednářová claims from the beginning that she is innocent and that she is being judged for her opinion. “I am being tried here for a Czech language lesson, and as the prosecution mentioned, for an opinion. It is absolutely absurd that we should be penalized for an opinion in a democratic system. In my case, it was not an opinion, I relied on historical facts,” she declared last year at the circuit court. She was also told that “the prosecution was reduced to the liquidation of a deserving cantor” and that her statements “proved to be true.”

The district court for Prague 6 last year acquitted the teacher of the charges, stating that her statements were false and misleading, but that “despite the highly controversial content, they did not have consequences for the mental health of the pupils”. The Court of Appeal then annulled the acquittal verdict and sent it back for a new hearing. This ended in January of this year with the same acquittal as last year, and the public prosecutor, who proposed an eight-month probation and a five-year teaching ban for Bednářová, filed an appeal again.

In the acquittal verdict, the trial court also argued that at the time of the hour in question there was no fighting in Kyiv and the Russian army had withdrawn from the capital. The court further determined that the act did happen, but it cannot be considered a criminal act.

In the meantime, Bednářová also lost an employment law dispute with the school, which fired her for questioning Russian war crimes in front of children. Bednářová therefore sued the school, the District Court for Prague 6 and subsequently the appeal panel of the Prague Municipal Court rejected her lawsuit, stating that she had violated the School Act, the school’s internal regulations and the Labor Code. “From her position as a teacher, i.e. a person who has at least formal authority with the pupils, she communicated false information to minor pupils in a suggestive manner,” described the teacher’s actions, judge Patricia Adamičková.