Prague teacher Martina Bednářová, who faced indictment for denying Russian war crimes in Ukraine, will not be punished. Today, the Court of Appeal upheld her acquittal. He rejected the appeal of the public prosecutor’s office, which initially requested an eight-month suspended sentence for the former Czech woman, as well as a five-year ban on pedagogic, educational or other work with children. The Czech woman, who discussed the topic of the Russian invasion with the eighth graders in the style lesson, insists on her statements.
“The defendant cannot be viewed as Master Jan Hus, who was ultimately burned at the stake for his views. But as far as the criminal law level is concerned, we believe that her actions did not reach such a level that it could be punished by the means of criminal law.” stated the chairperson of the appeal panel of the Prague municipal court Hana Chaloupková. She added that “a lot of things” can be blamed on the defendants in terms of ethics and pedagogy.
Chaloupková’s Senate already decided on the matter last fall, when it annulled Bednářová’s acquittal and returned the case to the circuit court for additional evidence. He then acquitted the woman of the charges for the second time in January this year. The State Prosecutor’s Office announced today that it will consider filing an appeal with the Supreme Court.
Bednářová opened up the topic of Ukraine while teaching at Na Dlouhé lán Elementary School in early April 2022, i.e. a few weeks after the start of the Russian invasion. According to the indictment, in class she tried to justify war crimes against peace by saying that it was an excusable way of dealing with the situation on the part of the Russians. She told the students that nothing was happening in Kyiv. When they objected that they had seen a burning city on Czech TV news, she told them that public television was biased. It also stated that since 2014, Ukrainian Nazi groups in Donbas have been systematically exterminating Russians, including children, for example by burning and flaying them alive.
Some students contradicted the teacher and recorded her explanation. It was from this recording that the courts were based. Bednářová stands by her statements, according to her, journalists lied about the situation in Ukraine. “Is this state really prosecuting its own citizens to please the Ukrainians?” she asked today, among other things, in the courtroom. A teacher with 30 years of experience was fired after the incident, which led to her suing the school. She lost the labor law dispute, because according to the courts, her interpretation violated the school law, the school’s internal regulations and the labor code.
The woman came to the Prague municipal court today to be supported by her supporters, who applauded her for her speeches in the corridor. Supporters had previously sent her several hundred thousand crowns in a public fundraiser. Some of the donors attached encouraging messages in which they praised the teacher for her courage and described her as a victim of totalitarian will.
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