Prague Police have formally requested that the Chamber of Deputies lift the parliamentary immunity of Tomio Okamura, chairman of the right-wing Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party, over an anti-immigration billboard campaign in the lead-up to regional elections last year.
According to police spokesman Jan Daněk and district prosecutor for Prague 1 Jan Lelek, the request— delivered on Tuesday morning — relates to accusations of inciting racial hatred.
“The police began criminal proceedings in August,” spokesperson Daněk announced, as cited by Echo24, noting that the official request for lifting immunity was forwarded to the secretariat of the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, who will then pass it to the relevant parliamentary committee.
The SPD erected large, provocative billboards in Prague’s Wenceslas Square last September, just before the regional elections. One image showed an African migrant holding a bloody knife, his shirt also stained with blood, alongside the slogan: “Healthcare shortfalls won’t be solved by imported ‘surgeons.'”
Another billboard depicting Roma gypsies also drew criticism and sparked criminal complaints.
Critics labeled the advertisement as racist and designed to stoke public fear, accusations vehemently denied by the radical right-wing party and its leader.
The Prague municipality stated that while the SPD had requested to occupy a public space for filming an election spot, officials were not provided with detailed information about the content or the specific political party behind it. The SPD, however, contended that it acted transparently and received all the necessary permissions from the municipality and relevant authorities.
In an earlier statement, Tomio Okamura maintained that the billboards were a justified response to what he calls the government’s overly permissive stance on migration, highlighting the European Union’s controversial migration pact — which obligates member states to accept migrant quotas or face heavy fines — as a major concern.
“The SPD movement has been saying consistently and clearly since its inception that the presence of Muslim and African migrants in Europe is literally a ticking time bomb for our society and civilization,” Okamura remarked.
“The EU migration pact, which is also supported by [Czech Prime Minister] Fiala’s government, threatens to spread this dire problem to the Czech Republic as well,” he added.
Okamura further suggested that the criminal complaints against the SPD were politically motivated and intended to damage the party’s reputation before parliamentary elections that must take place before October this year.
Describing the billboard as an “allegory,” he said the campaign aims to warn citizens about the “devastating consequences” of uncontrolled migration.
“We’re proceeding very carefully compared to the migrant attacks taking place in Europe,” the SPD chairman added, insisting that his party’s message is underpinned by real statistics on violence committed by foreign nationals.
Should the Chamber of Deputies vote to waive Okamura’s immunity, prosecutors could formally charge the SPD leader with incitement — a crime that, under Czech law, can carry prison time.
The matter now moves to the lower chamber’s mandate and immunity committee, which will deliberate on whether the request satisfies the legal criteria for prosecution.
