The Czech Minister of Education has initiated a criminal investigation probe against Amnesty International (A.I).

The complaint was filed by Martin Odehnal, who contacted the police over an Amnesty International Report published on April 23, 2015 alleging ethnic discrimination of Romani children in Czech Schools. At the time, Odenhnal was director of the special education department. The state prosecutor, Zdenka Galkova, dismissed the report on 9 March, 2016 as fake research. According to the prosecutor, this was “unfounded” criticism, but not a crime.

The Report is based on primary research in 24 schools sources and suggests that Romani children in the Czech Republic suffer “systemic and ongoing discrimination in primary education,” directly and indirectly; indirectly, by the overrepresentation of Romani in technical schools; directly by segregation of classes and even by placing Romani children in school for pupils with mild mental disabilities. Amnesty insists on its findings and insists on its policy not to commission citizens of the countries it probes so as to maintain objectivity.

(Novinky.cz, Pravo, Romea.cz, ToL)