Czech Republic: Juvenile perpetrator of "machete attack" gets 4.5 years

Today the Regional Court in Liberec increased both the charges and the punishment for a juvenile perpetrator who participated in the so-called "machete attack" in the Czech town of Nový Bor in 2011. Five assailants injured three men in a bar during the incident.

The court has now sentenced the juvenile perpetrator to 4.5 years in prison for attempted murder. The first-instance judgment originally convicted him of grievous bodily harm and sentenced him to 3.5 years. 

The other four assailants have already been convicted of either attempted murder or grievous bodily harm. They have received sentences ranging from five to 17.5 years in prison.

The Regional Court in Liberec was asked to review the level of the juvenile’s culpability on the basis of a decision by the High Court. "We are bound by the legal opinion of the High Court, which is why we have qualified his behavior as attempted murder," Judge Eva Drahotová said.

The youth will serve his sentence in a juvenile prison. Now 18 years old, he views his sentence as unjust.

"I did no such thing and I do not deserve this punishment," he said after the judgment was handed down. Reportedly appealing the case further would not produce a better outcome.

"There wouldn’t be any point [to an appeal]," said the youth, who is the reason the incident in August 2011 occurred. The entire judicial merry-go-round was set in motion by the attack in the bar, during which the assailants were taking revenge for a previous conflict between a waitress and two Romani youths who had gone there to gamble.

The woman reportedly asked to see their identification and the youths began to vulgarly insult her. Other customers stood up for the woman and removed the youths from the bar, during which a customer punched one of them.

The youths returned to the bar shortly thereafter with reinforcements and attacked the customers without warning. One of the injured men subsequently had to have part of his skull replaced with a platinum plate.

A court psychologist stated that the attack was not planned, but was committed in anger. The court, however, found the assault to have been felonious, as the victim was attacked from behind with great intensity.