A newly elected MP for the far-right Kotleba-People's Party Our Slovakia gave up his post in Slovak Parliament on Friday. He did this one day after the northern Slovak town of Namestovo District Court adjourned his case on Thursday. Andrej Medvecký along with his cousin Jozef is accused of inflicting bodily harm on the grounds of racial hatred. According to the prosecution, he attacked a citizen of the Dominican Republic in November 2014.
According to eyewitnesses, Andrej Medvecký kneeled on Leny Cruz from the Dominican Republic and started punching him with his fists after shouting "kill the nigger, there's no place for him here, this is your death". Leny Cruz from the Dominican Republic lives and works in Austria with his girlfriend who comes from the northern Slovak village of Sucha Hora. Since the attack in 2014, he is afraid of visiting Slovakia. His girlfriend Katarína Poznanová said for the public broadcaster RTVS: "They badly cursed at him because of his skin. Due to the injuries, he had to go on sick leave for a month and thus lost his job."
The accused ran in Saturday's general election as number 9 on the extremist's party slate. At the district court he claimed that they like people with different colour of the skin and that they get along with them extremely well. "They must have mistaken me for someone else. It is true that I was in that bar but I have not committed this crime," Medvecký said for RTVS.
The District court adjourned the case as one of the victims could not be present at the Thursday proceedings. The next meeting was set for May 12. If the accused are found guilty, they can be sentenced to prison for up to 3 years. Andrej Medvecký has already been carrying out a suspended sentence for driving while intoxicated as of March 2015.
The head of the extremist far-right People's Party - Our Slovakia Marian Kotleba told journalists on Friday that he did not know about this crime. However, he admitted to have known about this MP being prosecuted for driving while intoxicated when he prepared the list of MPs running to parliament for his party. "I did not find it rather correct that he is carrying out a suspended sentence but there were several MPs in the parliament which had done even worse things", said Marian Kotleba.
