Town mayor files lawsuit against human rights minister

The mayor of Chomutov, Ivana Řápkova, has filed a libel suit against the minister for minorities and human rights Michael Kocáb. The mayor claims that the minister is damaging her reputation by blaming her for the town’s problems with the Romany minority. According to an analysis which the minister commissioned, the town hall should have dealt with Romany rent-defaulters systematically instead of cracking down on them with full force earlier this year and ordering bailiffs to confiscate their welfare and child support subsidies. The mayor says that her decision was not-racially motivated and that the town hall had been struggling to reach agreement with these particular rent-defaulters for years.