Police not to question activists criticising Chinese visit

Prague, March 30 (CTK) – The police will not investigate the Czech activists who projected light pictures and texts criticising Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Prague visit on the buildings of Prague Castle, seat of the Czech heads of state, last night, police spokeswoman Andrea Zoulova has told CTK.
The photos from the event were posted on Facebook by former Greens deputy Katerina Jacques show.
The Presidential Office will not deal with the affair, President Milos Zeman’s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek has said.
“We have reacted with a unique light project at Prague Castle to Xi’s visit to Prague,” the activists said online.
“We believe that the real truth and love [slogans of former president Vaclav Havel] will address many Czech citizens at least on the facade of Prague Castle,” the activists said.
The texts and patterns projected on the facade of a Prague Castle building overlooking the Vltava River reminded of Havel, a critic of human rights abuses in China, and called for the liberation of Tibet and Taiwan.
The activists also projected the texts saying “a president [meaning Milos Zeman] for sale” and “CZ for sale.”
At night, the police were looking for the probable place from which the activists were screening the show, but they did not arrest anyone, police spokesman Tomas Hulan has told CTK.
“In the end, we managed to find the probable place, but there was no projection device there,” Hulan said.
Zoulova said the police had been investigating the screening because it targeted a space covered by the security measures within Xi’s visit.
“Based on an evaluation of all original information, the police judged that the conduct was not illegal,” she added.
On Tuesday, President Milos Zeman and Xi Jinping signed a strategic cooperation agreement between the Czech Republic and China.
Ovcacek said Xi Jinping’s visit to the Czech Republic was of a tremendous importance and Chinese investments were important.
“Given the reaction of the public, this affair is quite marginal, which means that the Presidential Office will not deal with it at all,” Ovcacek said.
“An activists’ show has appeared in connection with the Chinese visit, with Miroslav Kalousek, chairman of the opposition TOP 09, having definitively become its leader on Tuesday,” he added.
“I can only guess that this was a picture from the life of a well-known fighter for the rights of the Tibetan people, Kalousek,” Ovcacek said ironically about the project.
Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to Prague has been accompanied by a number of protests.
The association for the creation of Havel’s statue installed a billboard featuring Havel flanked by the Tibetan Dalai Lama in Evropska Street along which Xi Jinping rode from Prague’s airport.
In some streets, activists sprayed with dye Chinese flags put up on the occasion of Xi Jinping’s visit, replacing them with Tibetan flags.
On Tuesday, hundreds of people protested in Prague against human rights abuses in China.
Xi Jinping ends his visit yesterday.