Ztohoven one more time

„I decided the way I did.“ These meaningless words did not sound very nice. Stanislava Suchánková, a Trutnov district court judge, used them four years ago to explain to Respekt why she sent Petr Hejl to prison for only 2.5 years, although he was convicted of very authentically threatening entrepreneur Dalibor Žižka to kill his entire family unless he pays a certain sum of money. The judge's words from last Tuesday are a lot more positive: „There is no reason for the court to doubt that the accused have committed the acts. However, the explosion on the television screen couldn't have scared people.“

It is good that the petition seeking a presidential pardon for the Ztohoven group of artists remained unheard and the seven members of the group were brought to court. Above all, the trial has proved that despite scepticism about the Czech judiciary, our courts at least sometimes set a good example. In this particular case, the Trutnov court acted far more sensibly than the accused artists. The artists refused to testify, arguing what they did was a work of art and art, as they say, is not a crime. But that is a mere alibi – didn't the composer Karl Stockausen say the September 11 attacks were the greatest work of art?

What guidelines should courts follow when assessing the artistic value of each such event? But the Trutnov court made the…