Far-right MP Mazurek found guilty. He will lose his seat

It is the first case in Slovakia where an MP has their seat revoked after being convicted.

Milan Mazurek, MP for the far-right People’s Party – Our Slovakia (ĽSNS MP), will be the first deputy to lose a seat in the parliament due to a court ruling. The Supreme Court found him guilty for racist comments against the Roma despite his lawyers' efforts to cast doubt on the collected evidence, the Sme daily reported.

Read also MP for far-right party is accused of defamation of race Read more

The law stipulates that a Slovak MP automatically loses a seat in the parliament after being convicted of a deliberate crime.

Mazurek will also have to pay a fine of €10,000 for statements he made in October 2016 on the radio station Rádio Frontinus, based in Žilina..

The 2020 elections

If he pays the fine, there will be no obstacle for him from running in next year's parliamentary elections. On the other hand, if he does not pay it, he will face probation.

For now, Mazurek should be replaced in the parliament by 44-year-old Milan Špánik, a ĽSNS regional head in Trenčín. It is not yet known if he will decide to join and strengthen the ĽSNS parliamentary caucus, as reported by the Denník N daily.

Špánik ran in the past regional and municipal elections as an independent candidate or with the support of the National Coalition (Národná koalícia).

Read also Far-right MP was not found guilty for publishing anti-Semitic Facebook post Read more

Verdict confirmed

The verdict is now valid. The Supreme Court was deciding on an appeal submitted against the previous verdict from April 2018, when the Specialised Criminal Court found Mazurek guilty of defamation of the nation, race, and belief, and fined him with €5,000. If he had not paid the fine, he would have faced a six-month suspended sentence.

After the ruling was announced last year, several extremists threatened a judge and a prosecutor, Sme wrote.

3. Sep 2019 at 13:12 | Compiled by Spectator staff