Former MP Dominik Feri charged with rape

The Prague Metropolitan Public Prosecutor's Office charged former politician Dominik Feri with rape on Monday. The charges were confirmed to the media yesterday.

The indictment accuses Feri, a former deputy in the Czech lower house of Parliament, of two completed crimes of rape and one attempted crime of rape. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, as he is also prosecuted on suspicion of raping a minor, in particular a 17-year-old girl. The Prague 3 District Court will deal with his case.

"The state representative of the District Prosecutor's Office for Prague 3 filed an indictment against one natural person at the District Court for Prague 3," Prague prosecutor spokesman Aleš Cimbala told Seznam Zpravý.

"Considering the fact that the main trial has not yet been ordered … we will not provide any additional and supplementary information on the matter at this time," he added. Cimbala did not mention the person's name, but it was apparent from the context that it was Feri.

The police, after an investigation, accused Feri of rape in March 2022. In October, the police proposed that Feri be charged.

Feri said that he was prepared to prove his innocence like in all other cases that had already been definitively shelved.

"I welcome that after almost two years of waiting I will be able to submit evidence proving my innocence to the court. So far, I could not comment on the ongoing proceedings in any way, so the media only had one-sided statements at their disposal. This will soon change at last," Feri told Seznam Zpravý.

The police launched prosecution of Feri after several women accused him in the media of sexual violence, harassment, and rape in May 2021.

In reaction to the statements, Feri, 26, resigned from his mandate in the Chamber of Deputies and announced that he would not run in the autumn 2021 general election. He also left the TOP 09 party and withdrew from public life.

Online news servers Deník N and A2larm published statements from several women who claimed Feri had behaved inappropriately between 2015 and 2020. Some said he had forced them to have sex with him even though they had clearly refused. Others said he had tried to get their naked pictures from them.

Feri apologized for any inappropriate behavior but denied ever committing sexual violence. "I regret all such failures and I deeply apologize for them," he said at the time, adding that he believed he had changed.

Feri became an MP in 2017 at the age of 21, which made him the youngest and the first black member of the Chamber of Deputies in the history of the Czech Republic.

He was especially popular among younger generations and on Instagram, where his @choco_afro account had nearly 1 million followers by early 2021. He was hospitalized in May 2022 after an alleged suicide attempt.