Arson in Czech Republic: Assailants marched through village with lit torches giving the Nazi salute

In the town of Býchory, Kolín district, an unidentified perpetrator threw a lit torch into a Romani home in the early morning hours of today. None of the victims suffered physical injury as a result. Police suspect the attack was racially motivated.

“At 12:30 AM a group of people walked around the Romani home shouting racist slogans. One of them then threw a flaming, wrapped stick, resembling a torch, into the house. The family put out the fire themselves. Fortunately no one was injured and the damage is estimated at about CZK 100,” Soňa Budská, spokesperson for the Central Bohemian Regional Police, told news server Romea.cz.

News server iDNES.cz has reported that the victims’ neighbor says he saw a group of about seven youngsters throw the torch into the Romani home. “The walked through the village holding lit torches and giving the Nazi salute. In my opinion a bunch of young suckers got drunk and ‘went after Gypsies’, as they say. They were yelling that they don’t want any of them here. I had just gone to close the window because of the thunderstorm, so that’s why I noticed them,” the neighbor said.

Experts warn against minimizing the incident and similar situations. “Hate incidents cannot be excused as due to youthful indiscretion or intoxication with alcohol. They are consciously committed with the intention of attacking someone because the victim does not conform to the perpetrator’s notion of a proper citizen,” Klára Kalibová of the In IUSTITIA civic association, which helps the victims of hate crimes, told news server Romea.cz. “Rather than excusing the assailants, the victims must be supported,” Kalibová said.

The racist arson attack was condemned by the Central Bohemian Regional Coordinator for Ethnic Minorities, Cyril Koky. “I consider this arson attack to be bestiality of the first order. The perpetrators evidently are not at all aware of the seriousness of their behavior. I believe the police will find the perpetrators and bring them to trial,” Koky told news server Romea.cz.

A total of five people, including three small children, live in the victims’ home. At the time of the attack, another two people were staying there on a visit. “They left to stay with relatives in Prague immediately that morning, they’re afraid to stay here any longer,” the victims’ neighbor noted.

The investigation has been taken up by the regional police, who are considering it racially motivated attempted grievous bodily harm. According to a police spokesperson, the perpetrators face prison sentences of between five and 12 years.