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Charges reduced against three out of four men suspected of arson in Býchory, Czech Republic

22 October 2012
3 minute read

Three of the four men arrested in connection with Monday’s arson attack in Býchory, Kolín district, have had the charges against them reduced by the regional state prosecutor. Czech Television reported today that the three face new charges of committing violence against a group and individuals and face sentences of between six months to three years in prison. The original charges remain in place against a fourth man who faces up to 12 years in prison for the racially motivated attack.

Police originally charged all four with complicity in committing attempted grievous bodily harm. Police say the crime had a racist subtext. A decision should be made today as to whether the four will be remanded into custody.

A flaming torch was thrown into the Romani home in Býchory in the early morning hours of Monday. No one was injured. Someone threw a wrapped stick resembling a torch into the living room, but the victims managed to put out the fire.

Some media reported the torch was put out by the eight-year-old son of the victimized family. News server Romea.cz has learned that was not the case. The torch was put out by an adult, a friend of the family who was watching television in the room. After initiating their investigation, detectives determined that a group had marched through the village that night shouting racist slogans and that a member of the group allegedly threw the flaming torch into the Romani family’s apartment.

The media has reported that some of the suspects attended an ultra-right concert on Saturday evening in Velký Osek along with 200 right-wing extremists. The media has also reported that the suspects are from Býchory and neighboring villages. Soňa Budská, spokesperson for the Central Bohemian Police, has not confirmed these reports. “That is all the subject of the investigation,” she said. Budská also did not want to comment on reports that one of the suspects had previously attacked a Romani family and threatened to kill one of their children. Czech Television reports that the racial motivation of the arson attack is testified to by statements the suspects made on the Facebook social networking site.

The most famous racially motivated attack against Romani people in recent years remains the April 2009 case in which four right-wing extremists threw three Molotov cocktails into a single-family house in Vítkov. During the subsequent blaze three people were injured. An infant who was not yet two years old at the time suffered the most serious injuries. In March the court sent the perpetrators to prison for sentences ranging from 20 to 22 years. Not quite one year after the Vítkov case, a similar attack on a Romani home was committed in the Bedřiška settlement of Ostrava. However, in this case the court ruled that the motivation was not racism, but a dispute between neighbors. In March the court sent the juvenile perpetrator to prison for four years, while his mother was sent to prison for 7.5 years for having instructed him to commit reckless endangerment.

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