News server Romea.cz. Everything about Roma in one place

News server Romea.cz. Everything about Roma in one place

Czech Constitutional Court says father's anonymous, racist e-mail about a non-white doll at nursery school was blackmail

15 January 2019
3 minute read

The Czech Constitutional Court has rejected a complaint from a man who discovered a dark-skinned doll among the toys in a nursery school attended by his children and who then wrote an anonymous e-mail about the toy to the principal. In his message, the parent threatened to publish photographs of the doll and to create “bad advertising” for the school unless the principal got rid of the doll.

The parent said he considered the doll a “distasteful form of multi-culti propaganda”. The Czech News Agency has learned from the court’s decision that the man’s prosecution on suspicion of blackmail was conditionally suspended by the prosecutor and that a year-long probationary period for him was established.

The man at first agreed to the conditional suspension, but then sought to have the prosecution entirely halted. In his Constitutional Court complaint he reiterated the argument in his defense that he does not consider it a felony to “send an e-mail”.

The court, however, sided with the opinion expressed by the prosecutors, according to whom the anonymous parent’s action met the definition of blackmail. In his message the man threatened the principal, who is responsible for the children’s safety and the nursery school’s reputation, with creating a “very unflattering advertisement” for the school.

“The Constitutional Court cannot find anything wrong with the [prosecution’s] assessment [of the action], especially given the context of hatred overall and the racial motivation for the plaintiff’s behavior,” reads the court’s decision, which is available in the court’s database. The prosecution of the blackmailer began in November 2017.

According to detectives, the man sent the nursery school principal an anonymous e-mail complaining about the doll because “it does not have a natural Central European color”. He wrote the following in the e-mail: “We are in the Czech Republic and we are white.”

“I do not intend to tolerate this distasteful form of multi-culti propaganda under any circumstances,” the man wrote. He also said that if the principal felt it necessary to promote “multi-culti”, she should move to the West.

The e-mail also contained the threat that if the principal did not correct the situation, the parent would publish a photo of the doll through online social networks. “Take this as a first and last friendly warning,” the e-mail read.

“I will be personally checking up on the situation,” the anonymous blackmailer threatened. When he was interrogated by police, he confessed and said he had written the e-mail out of fear for his children.

The parent claimed to be constantly seeing in the media that “illegal immigrants are rolling on in here and assaulting people.” When asked why the doll angered him so much, he answered that it was because of the “situation being set up for us by the politicians, the media, in which Christian values are suppressed in the interest of greater protection for minority rights.”

He also claimed that he “anticipated some ‘likes’ ” from publishing a photo of the doll online and that he just wanted to spark discussion about it and nothing else. In the end, the confessed blackmailer called his behavior the most stupid thing he had ever done in his life, expressed regret, and delivered a written apology to the police for the principal.

The District State Prosecutor for Plzeň-město then decided to conditionally suspend the defendant’s prosecution and established a probation period of one year. According to the prosecution, while the man has confessed and regrets everything he has done, on the other hand, his action does meet the definition of blackmail.

The prosecution also warned the man that the court’s decision was conditional and temporary. If he did not refrain from criminal behavior while on probation, the prosecution would continue with the filing of an indictment.

Help us share the news about Romas
Trending now icon