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Former Prague imam Samer Shehadeh admitted on Tuesday that he had helped his brother and sister-in-law travel to Syria to join a the organisation Jabhat Fatah as-Sham (Conquest of Syria).

However, Shehadeh said he does not consider it a criminal act because he does not recognise the Syrian government or perceive Jabhat Fatah as-Sham as terrorists. He also said any Czech courts' decision is irrelevant to him as they do not follow Islamic sharia law.

The former imam’s brother and sister-in-law are also defendants in the case. Czech intelligence services began investigating the trio in 2016. Shehadeh is also accused of using charity money to support terrorism financially.

The Supreme Court has ruled that a Prague school was wrong to ban headscarves for hygienic reasons in a suit brought forward by a Somali schoolgirl who wore it for religious reasons.

The court ruled that religious pluralism must be respected and no religious group should be discriminated against or disadvantaged.

A lower court had ruled in favour of the school, which argued that since the Somali schoolgirl was yet not enrolled there, she could not have been discriminated against for wearing a hijab.

In connection with the terrorist attack in New Zealand’s Christchurch, the Czech minister of the interior, Jan Hamáček, says the country’s police force are investigating all instances of people expressing approval on the internet of criminal acts. Mr. Hamáček said on Twitter that officers had begun monitoring such cases on Friday.

Police chief Jan Švejdar said that the force would not tolerate any expressions of agreement with terrorism, extremism or hate speech. Czech police have responded to internet hate speech in the past, including in late 2017, when they dealt with cases of vitriol directed at a photo of a mixed-race group of primary school children.

Forty-nine people were murdered and dozens more were seriously injured in a gun attack on two mosques in Christchurch on Friday.

Czech leaders have condemned Friday’s attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand that claimed 49 lives and left 50 wounded.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš tweeted that he was ‘appalled by the horrendous terrorist attack’ and extended his ‘deepest sympathy to the friends and families of the victims and all people of New Zealand.’

Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček also sent condolences, calling the attack ‘repugnant’. He said that he rejects all forms of violence, including that which is aimed at people of another faith.

No Czech citizens are believed to have been killed or wounded in the attack.

A pensioner has been convicted of terrorism after causing rail crashes intended to resemble jihadist attacks. A supporter of the Freedom and Direct Democracy party, he said his aim was to spark resistance and ensure the “horror” of Muslim migrants never reached the Czech Republic.

The National Centre for Combatting Organized Crime issued its annual report on Wednesday highlighting potential security risks to the country. It reported a growing number of sham marriages, particularly with citizens of Turkey, and warned of “uncontrolled numbers of people practicing Islam entering the country”.

Europe’s leading anti-immigration parties gathered in Prague at the weekend for a conference aimed at coordinating their policies and rallying anti-EU, anti-immigration forces on the continent. On their way into the heavily fortified hotel on the outskirts of Prague they were booed by hundreds of demonstrators chanting “shame” and “NO to fascism, populism and xenophobia”.

A Somali girl who was barred from wearing a hijab at a Prague secondary school has lost an appeal in which she was seeking an apology and CZK 60,000 in compensation from the institution. Prague’s Municipal Court on Tuesday confirmed a previous ruling under which the girl’s allegation of discrimination was dismissed.

The plaintiff had argued that wearing the veil was an expression of her religious conviction. However, a Municipal Court judge said that the school, which prepares students for a career in medicine, had to remain a “neutral environment”.

At the start of this year historian Matěj Spurný came in for a great deal of online abuse – and even death threats – after an interview he gave a magazine headlined This country is not just for Czechs. Spurný’s work is focused on issues of nationalism and identity and he is a co-founder of Antikomplex, a group advocating for a more critical look at the post-war expulsion of the country’s German minority. When the Charles University academic visited our studios I was curious to know, given his specialisation, about his own family background.

A Prague court has rejected a complaint of alleged discrimination filed by a young Somali woman who left a Prague nursing school because she was not allowed to wear a headscarf. She sued the school, seeking an apology and 60,000 crowns in compensation. The court ruled that there was no evidence of discrimination. The school headmistress argued that wearing a hijab was unacceptable at a nursing school and that hospitals where nurses were sent on training would not accept it. She moreover argued that the said student had failed to fulfil the criteria for admission by not producing a residence permit by the set date and had only come up with the hijab as her reason for leaving the school later. The case evoked heated emotions and at one point the judge ordered the courtroom cleared.