Kotleba: I Expected to Be Acquitted of Charges
Bratislava, October 12 (TASR) – Head of the far-right People’s Party Our Slovakia (LSNS) Marian Kotleba, who was found guilty of the crime of supporting and promoting groups aimed at suppressing fundamental rights and freedoms on Monday, stated on the same day that he expected a not-guilty verdict.
“Of course, I can’t say that I’m thrilled because I expected to be acquitted of the charges. It’s clearly obvious from the explanation of the verdict that it was formulated in advance; that it wasn’t done on Monday,” stated Kotleba, who was sentenced by the Specialised Criminal Court (STS) to four years and four months in prison for distributing cheques with an amount infused with neo-Nazi symbolism to three poor families, although it is still possible to appeal against the verdict.
In addition, Kotleba is of the opinion that the explanation of the verdict showed that the judge didn’t take a single argument from his defence into account.
“It seems to me, obviously, that there was a political order stating that things must come to an end and that Kotleba needs to be disposed of,” he opined. According to him, there’s a plethora of reasons for filing an appeal against the verdict with the Supreme Court. “We’ll wait for the written explanation and then decide on our approach,” he said.