During and after the S26 demonstration in Prague the Czech police arrested up to 950 people. Those arrested were denied their legal rights, were beaten in custody and denied access to legal aid, food, medicine, clean water and toilets. Many of those arrested report of being prevented sleeping for up to 36 hours by the police. The fact that only 25 of those arrested were actually charged demonstrates not only the random nature of the arrests but also the reality of the police riot that took place on S26 and S27.
Photographs show that many of the police had removed or obscured their identification numbers.
In addition photographs that have been published in newspapers and on the internet reveal the presence of police agents-provocateurs dressed as rioters. There is international outrage at the police abuses and the massive cover up of them the Czech state is now involved in. Demonstrations have happened outside Czech embassies all over the world and tens of thousands of protest letters and emails have poured in from organisations and individuals. We, the Anti-Privatisation Forum, Gauteng, South Africa, comprising the organisations listed below, demand the immediate release of all prisoners still in Czech jails from the S26 demonstrations against the IMF and World Bank. We demand that all the charges against people arrested on that day be immediately dropped.