Czech police target Tokyo-born far-right leader over hate posters

PRAGUE – Czech police have proposed criminal charges against Tokyo-born far-right leader Tomio Okamura and his SPD party over anti-immigration posters used during last year’s EU election campaign, which investigators say incited hatred.

“The police have completed their investigation and submitted the case file to the public prosecutor with a proposal to bring charges,” public prosecutor Jan Lelek told Czech news site Seznam Zprávy on Thursday. The supervising prosecutor has yet to decide whether to pursue an indictment. If tried and convicted, Okamura could face up to three years in prison.

The case centres on SPD campaign posters opposing the EU migration pact, which police say violated Czech laws against incitement. One billboard featured an AI-generated image of a dark-skinned man holding a bloody knife with the slogan: “Shortcomings in healthcare won’t be solved by ‘imported surgeons’. Another, also AI-generated, showed two Roma boys smoking.

Okamura, who denies any wrongdoing in this case, is enjoying a renewed rise in popularity ahead of the October parliamentary election, and pushing for a Czech exit from the EU.

As legal pressure mounts, a new political movement has quietly been registered under the name Party of Supporters of Democracy and Tomio Okamura (SPDTO), submitted by an SPD official and friend of Okamura.

Okamura told Seznam Zprávy that his supporters launched the group in response to what he described as an effort by governing politicians “to manipulate the elections by purposely prosecuting my person for an anti-immigration poster”. He said he authorised the use of his name but distanced himself from the party’s future plans.

(de)