Czech Republic: Arsonists get parole, victims awarded damages

Today’s preliminary hearing with the defendants in the 2011 Býchory arson
case had a surprise ending: The High Court has overturned the decision of the
Regional Court and has placed the four defendants on parole. The court has also
awarded compensation for moral damages to the victims.

"This is a breakthrough verdict. This is the first time a court has ever
awarded compensation for moral damages caused by felony hate violence during a
criminal trial,” lawyer Klára Kalibová, who is representing the victimized
family in the case, told news server Romea.cz.

In July 2011, four young men from Býchory na Kolínsku aged 22 – 26, Vojtěch
Vyhnánek, Jan Říha, Jiří Drahovzal and Michal Řehák, agreed to “go terrorize
some gypsies”. Vyhnánek threw a burning torch through the window of a local
Romani family. Fortunately, the fire was quickly put out by a guest of the
family who was watching television in that particular room.

Since he was "the most active", Vyhnánek was sentenced in September 2011 by
the first-instance Regional Court in Prague to four years in prison for
attempted grievous bodily harm. However, according to the new decision of the
Prague High Court, the 22-year-old has merely committed violence against a group
and its individual members, which is a lesser charge. The verdict can be
appealed to the Supreme Court.

“The torch was thrown into the apartment with the awareness that the lights
and the television were on. It was therefore possible to assume at a minimum
that someone there was awake and watching television,” news server Novinky.cz
quoted Martin Zelenka, the judge who presided over the Appeals Senate, as saying.

Zelenka said he did not believe the torch used could have caused an extensive
blaze within a short time. “The people there would have had to be either
immobilized or otherwise incapacitated not to be able put out that kind of fire,”
he said.

Vyhnánek originally refused to confess his guilt and excused his actions by
saying he had just tossed the torch in the general direction of the building.
Now he is emphasizing that he was drunk at the time and says he just snapped.

Last year Jiří Drahovzal, Michal Řehák and Jan Říha were all paroled for the
same crime that Vyhnánek has now been convicted of. They were with him at the
scene that night, shouting racist slogans and threats with him prior to his
throwing the torch.

The appeals court has now handed down a milder verdict in their cases as well.
All three have been found guilty of defamation of an ethnic, national, racial or
other group. While Říha has received the same parole conditions as Vyhnánek,
Drahovzal and Řehák each got 10 months, suspended for two years.