Slovak prosecutor drops racism charges against former PM Robert Fico

Bratislava, Slovakia – A special prosecutor revoked the racism-related charges against former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, the TASR news agency reported earlier this week.

Prosecutor drops racism case against former PM Robert Fico

Investigators from the National Crime Agency (NAKA) had decided to press charges against Fico after the head of the ruling Smer party expressed his support to Milan Mazurek, a former MP for the far-right LSNS party who had been convicted of racism and expelled from Parliament for his anti-Roma comments.

The 25-year-old lawmaker from Kotleba’s neo-fascist ‘People’s Party our Slovakia’ had compared Roma people to animals and made other derogatory comments about the country’s sizable Roma community.

Far-right MP loses seat in Parliament over anti-Roma comments

In September, Mazurek was convicted by Slovakia’s Supreme Court and accordingly lost his seat in Parliament, becoming the first lawmaker to be kicked out of Parliament in the country’s modern history.

The former Prime Minister later posted a video expressing his support to Mazurek and was charged last month for incitement to national, racial and ethnic hatred, defaming a race, nation and belief and endorsement of a crime.

Special prosecutor Dusan Kovacik did not give any explanation as to why he decided to drop the racism-related charges against Robert Fico.

Main photo credit: AP/Olivier Matthys