The current story of Romani people in the Czech Republic is not just about court cases, hate marches, or problems related to discrimination. Beneath the surface, a process of empowerment is underway.
Recently this concept, which has become ever more important in recent years, has been translated into the Czech language as "enhancement of position". One example of this process is the case from Kynšperk, which we have reported on previously.
The incident occurred after the stormy anti-Romani unrest in the Šluknov area and the town of Břeclav at the start of May 2012, near a footbridge across the Ohře River in the center of the small West Bohemian town of Kynšperk. Mr Ludovíť Kašpar, a 33-year-old worker and father of three, encountered two local police officers, Vítězslav N. and Pavel H., just before midnight there.
The officers stated that they knew Mr Kašpar, addressing him in a friendly way as "Ludvo" and using the informal form of address. However, because they believed he was acting strangely and not obeying their orders, they attempted to pacify him.
Neither of the officers were injured during the intervention, but Mr Kašpar passed away two days later in a hospital in Sokolov as a result of injuries sustained during the incident. At the end of last year, after a two and a half year investigation, the Regional State Prosecutor in Plzeň, Irena Kondrová, charged the two officers with the offense of negligent homicide, a section of the law that is normally used for deaths resulting from traffic accidents.
Since, according to the indictment, this crime was committed by the officers violating their professional obligations, they faced between one and six years in prison if convicted. Because lower-level offenses are adjudicated by lower-level courts, the case was assigned to the District Court in Sokolov.
The defendants claim they are innocent, insisting that they could not have taken any other course of action and that the detainee passed away as a result of a combination of unfortunate circumstances they could not have influenced. They have yet to apologize to his surviving family members and have not provided any financial aid to the bereaved children for the loss of their father.
Representation of those children was first undertaken by the Prague-based attorney Robert Pelikán, who subsequently became Deputy Justice Minister. He then handed the case over to an attorney in Sokolov who will continue to represent the interests of the children.
The trial began in February, during which the main witnesses, experts and specialists from various fields testified. On 16 June another hearing was scheduled to take place and the witnesses showed up, but the court announced that it would not go forward because one participant was absent.
The next hearing has yet to be scheduled. The state prosecutor says this is the usual procedure, and she herself has not yet received the third medical expert witness statement that the court ordered.
This third expert is supposed to decide which of the two previously-submitted, contradictory forensic evaluations is closer to the truth of what happened. The question is whether the death of the victim was unequivocally caused by the police officers charged or whether some other cause for his death might be probable.
Since the third evaluation has yet to be submitted to the court, the participants in the proceedings have not been able to prepare their interrogation of the third expert either. What is remarkable about this entire case, though, is the courage and persistence of the surviving family members.
Even though the police officers who have been charged remain on active duty, and even though similarly brutal interventions by some local police officers have been whispered about in this small town for several years now, the family of the deceased is insisting on their compensation claim and have regularly attended every hearing of the trail. They want to see justice done.
At the end of March a shoving match between two Romani people and a homeless man took place in Kynšperk in front of a building occupied by Romani families. Two of the building’s residents are important witnesses in this case.
At the time, the local homeless man had been summoned to testify twice. The first time he arrived to court drunk, and the second time he was unable to wait in the hallway and left before it was his turn to testify.
The homeless man has now been summoned to testify a third time. The only person to be arrested and taken into custody after the physical altercation between the homeless man and the two Romani people was Dušan S., who was suspected of assaulting a witness in order to influence his testimony.
Dušan S. is the uncle of the late Mr Kašpar’s children. He is permanently employed by the town’s Technical Services, and was supposed to testify during the trial himself.
The other Romani participant in this random brawl has a long criminal record but was neither charged nor taken into custody. Dušan S. made an unsuccessful suicide attempt while in custody that resulted in temporary memory loss – according to doctors, he was unable to testify during the trial at the end of April.
The family of the late Mr Kašpar is horrified by what has happened to Dušan S. The state of his health is such that he was unable to ask his relatives to visit him.
Fortunately, Dušan S. has been given a high-quality ex offo defense lawyer. His representative has been filing one complaint after another and the relevant court has gradually granted them all.
In mid-May, Dušan S. was released from custody. Since he has managed to regain his health, his employer has taken him back.
What’s more, Dušan S. is able and willing once more to testify in the case of the death of his brother-in-law, Mr Ludoviť Kašpar. In and of itself, that is a testament to the fact that the position of the whole local Romani community has been empowered by this fight for justice.
