Czech government plans automatic deportation of foreign convicts

The Czech government coalition plans to introduce the automatic deportation of foreign nationals sentenced to at least three years in prison, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reports, citing Tomio Okamura, speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and leader of the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party.

According to the report, the leaders of the parties in the governing coalition — SPD, the ANO (Action of Dissatisfied Citizens) movement, and Motorists — have reached an agreement on the measure. Justice Minister Jeroným Tejc has prepared a draft document outlining the proposed changes.

“We will explicitly list the crimes carrying a certain prison sentence. Specifically, we want the threshold to be three years of imprisonment. I advocated for an even tougher version,” Okamura was quoted as saying.

Under current Czech law, the deportation of foreign nationals convicted of crimes is not automatic and is ordered by courts on a case-by-case basis.

The governing coalition has also agreed on the need to toughen penalties for rape for all convicted offenders, including foreign nationals. The justice minister is preparing guidelines for prosecutors that would, among other things, require them to appeal more frequently when courts impose lenient sentences for such offences.