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The Czech Muslim community is considering making a criminal complaint against the leader of the Dawn party Senator Tomio Okamura for hate speech. On his Facebook page the senator recently endorsed a contribution by the party’s deputy Jiří Kobza who encouraged Czechs to insult Muslims, suggesting they walk pigs in the vicinity of mosques and boycott Muslim-owned businesses in order to protect their democratic way of life. The head of the Czech Muslim community Muneeb Hassan Alrawi told Czech Radio that this is not the first time the party leader has presented anti-Muslim views and that community leaders are debating the best possible course of action.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Prague has responded to controversial statements made by President Miloš Zeman over the weekend. In a statement on its web page the embassy said that in bilateral relations the decisive voice in Prague was that of the Czech government which had made it clear that it fully respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and supported its reform efforts.

In an interview for the Czech daily Pravo published on Saturday President Zeman described the Ukrainian prime minister, Arseny Yatseniuk, as a “war premier” saying that Kiev was following a two-faced policy, with President Petro Poroshenko representing a “man of peace” while Mr. Yatseniuk wanted to resolve the situation by force rather than accepting a European Commission peace deal.

The Czech head of state likewise spoke about fascist tendencies in Kiev, saying that a recent Banderite march through the city reminded him of the Nazi torch marches of the 1930s. The Ukrainian Embassy said in its statement that despite the controversial views on Stepan Bander to most Ukrainians today he was a symbol of the fight for freedom and independence.

Lower house deputy for the Dawn party, Milan Šarapaka has distanced himself from the anti-Muslim statements made by party leader, Senator Tomio Okamura. On his Facebook page the senator encouraged his followers to insult Muslims, suggesting they walk pigs in the vicinity of mosques and boycott Muslim-owned businesses in order to protect their democratic way of life. Deputy Šarapatka, a former diplomat, said he had repeatedly tried to temper the senator’s radical foreign policy views without success and was no longer willing to take part in setting the party’s foreign policy line. He will however remain a member of the party’s deputies group in the lower house. The Dawn party has 14 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Its leader, Czech-Japanese politician Tomio Okamura, is known for making controversial statements with regard to foreigners and the Romany minority.

The blood plasma company Diag Human which has unsuccessfully sued the Czech state in several foreign countries for allegedly failing to protect its investment in the Czech Republic says the protracted court battle is not over. The company is reportedly filing fresh suits in Belgium and the Netherlands. Diag Human has already lost suits filed in Austria, France, Switzerland, Great Britain and the United States. It claimed eight billion crowns plus interest for a marred deal in the 1990s.