Red rights.

(From The Prague Post)

Byline: Kevin Livingston

Free-speech advocates hail communist's acquittal on extremism charge

David Pecha is a self-proclaimed Marxist and an advocate of Bolshevik-style revolution in a country working to shed its communist past.

But that doesn't make him a criminal.

Pecha, the first person ever to be prosecuted for left-wing extremism in this country, was acquitted by a north Moravian court Oct. 7, putting an end to his three-year battle with police and prosecutors.

Police had charged the 26-year-old writer with advocating violence and trying to suppress the rights and freedoms of the population. Ironically, police acted under a rarely used communist-era law aimed at reining in right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis.

Pecha claims he was persecuted for publishing unpopular beliefs in the defunct communist journal Pochoden (Torch). He described his acquittal in the much-publicized trial as a partial victory over capitalism and injustice. "I never thought I would go to jail for spreading uncomfortable …