Czech Police say most hate crimes last year were against Roma, number of antisemitic attacks declined

The Czech Police recorded 36 crimes motivated by hatred of Romani people last year, nine more than in 2017, and 15 crimes with an antisemitic subtext, 12 fewer than in 2017. Hate against Muslims motivated eight felonies last year, while hate against Arabs motivated seven.

There was a year-on-year growth of five incidents each in the categories of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim motivation. Those are the findings of a report on displays of extremism and prejudicial hatred for 2018 that the Government will review at the end of April.

Police logged 179 felonies with an extremist subtext last year, 26 more than the year before. More than half of those crimes have been solved.

Detectives reported that 136 people were prosecuted for hate crimes last year. Of all the felonies with an extremist subtext, crimes motivated by hatred against Romani people comprise one-fifth.

Felonies with an antisemitic subtext represented 8.4 %. Last year 54 people were convicted of crimes with a racial subtext, seven more than the year before.

The Czech courts convicted a total of 54 488 people overall last year for crimes of all kinds. "From the data presented it is evident that the proportion of such offenses (with a racial subtext) remains very low compared to the overall number of crimes punished in the Czech Republic," the report states.

The growth in the numbers of persons charged and brought to trial, according to the report, was influenced by the fact that the number of charges for incitement of hatred against a group of persons and defamation of a nation or race rose last year. There was a decline in the number of persons accused and prosecuted for felony displays of sympathy for a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms.

"That decline is, however, balanced out by the growth in hate speech on the Internet and social media," the report adds. Numbers for the crimes of battery with a racial or xenophobic subtext remained the same in 2018 as in 2017, with one person indicted and one prosecuted.

Nobody was prosecuted last year for felony murder motivated by extremism. According to the Supreme State Prosecutor's office, which is cited in the report, the most frequent cases of extremist offenses involved giving the Nazi salute, wearing objectionable symbols, spray-painting them on buildings, or having them as tattoos.