The police charged eight people with disorderly conduct due to an incident at the Prague Municipal Court at the end of May, where supporters of former journalist Jana Peterková, who was on trial for spreading an alarmist message, blocked the door to the courtroom. Czech Television (ČT) reported it today.
The five prosecuted are also accused by the police of violence against a public authority, and one of them is also accused of contempt of court. According to CT, one of the accused is Pavel Zítko.
Several dozen supporters of Peterková came to the court hearing on May 30. In an attempt to get into the courtroom, people attacked the judicial guard and barricaded the door. In the hallway, the crowd chanted slogans about the Gestapo and the fascist state. The police who were called arrested two men on the spot.
The court then imposed a two-year suspended sentence with a three-year probationary period on Peterková, excluding the public, for spreading an alarmist message during the coronavirus pandemic. Peterková filed an appeal against the verdict to the Supreme Court.
After the incident, Minister of Justice Pavel Blažek (ODS) evaluated the intervention of the police and judicial guards as professional. According to him, the situation is not such that changes in laws are needed.
The police detained Zítek two weeks ago on suspicion of embezzlement, and no one has yet been charged in the case, ČT reported. In the past, the man also drew attention to himself, for example, at the District Court for Prague 8, when, with loud speeches and chanting together with other people, he expressed support for Patrik Tušl, accused of persecuting the head of the Czech Medical Chamber, Milan Kubek, and Tomáš Čermák and Zdenek Masár, who are facing prosecution for disorderly conduct in front of the house of evolutionary biologist Jaroslav Flegr.
