Czech teacher receives suspended sentence for denying Russian war crimes in Ukraine
A Prague court has handed a suspended sentence to teacher Martina Bednářová for denying Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
Source: Czech news agency ČTK, as reported by European Pravda
Details: Bednářová brought up the topic of Ukraine during a lesson for eighth-grade pupils in early April 2022. She told the pupils that Russia's actions were a justified way to resolve the situation and claimed that "nothing was happening" in Kyiv.
When the pupils pointed out they had seen footage of Kyiv being attacked on Czech television news, Bednářová replied that public television was biased. She also said that, in her opinion, Ukrainian "Nazi groups in Donbas" had been "systematically destroying Russians" since 2014.
The District Court for Prague 6 heard her case for the third time. She had previously been acquitted twice, with the second verdict upheld by an appellate court. However, in January, the Czech Supreme Court overturned the rulings and ordered a retrial.
The prosecutor's office requested a suspended sentence and a five-year ban on working in education or any role involving children for the now dismissed Bednářová.
Bednářová's supporters cited freedom of speech and stressed the need for "tolerance of differing opinions", noting that some of the views she expressed have also been voiced by politicians such as Donald Trump.
In the end, Bednářová was found guilty of violating education law, internal school regulations and the labour code. She was sentenced to seven months of a suspended sentence with a probation period of 20 months.
Bednářová was also banned from teaching for three years and must complete a media literacy training course.
The verdict is not final. Bednářová, who is running for the Chamber of Deputies in the upcoming elections on the Prague list of the Czech communist movement Stačilo!, called the court ruling political.
She also claimed that "Russians were tortured" in Ukraine, the mass killing in the town of Bucha, Kyiv Oblast, had not yet been investigated, and that the media is misinforming the public about the war.
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