Czech Republic: Victim of arson attack says perpetrator's apology is meaningless since he fled the scene of his crime

News server Novinky.cz reports that witness testimony continued before the Central Bohemian Regional Court today in the trial of an arson attack committed against a Romani home last July in Býchory (Kolín district). The owner of the apartment was the first to testify today.

When the perpetrators threw a lit torch into the living room of the apartment, the owner and his girlfriend were asleep in the bedroom. He told the judges that two visiting friends of his woke him after putting out the torch with water. The apartment owner then called the police.

“We were terrified. If those two had not been in the living room, I don’t know what would have happened,” the owner said. He has since moved away from Býchory with his girlfriend and children and has not yet returned. The entire family has been afraid ever since the attack. “We’ve been afraid someone might throw something at us again,” the man told the court.

The man’s girlfriend described the situation similarly, saying one of the visiting friends had woken her. “She told us someone had thrown something that was burning, on fire, into our apartment,” she told the court. When they entered the living room, the torch had already been put out and was smoldering. “If our visitors hadn’t been spending the night in the living room, we might have burned to death,” she said. “Ever since then I’ve been afraid. When drunk people walk past us singing, one never knows what to expect.”

The woman went on to say that she knows two of the defendants, Jiří Drahovzal and Michal Řehák, with whom she had previously had a good time at a restaurant. “Jiří would sometimes remark that we were ‘the dregs’,” she said, adding that she had never noticed any other negative remarks from either of the defendants. She had experienced one other conflict in Býchory during which a youth unknown to her had threatened to run over her son with his car, telling her that “no one would arrest him for [killing a] black boy.”

Both victims testified without the defendants present because they were too afraid to see them. The only defendant at the courthouse was Vojtěch Vyhnánek, who had agreed to testify further after yesterday’s session; he stayed in the corridor during the victims’ testimony. His apology was communicated to both victims by his attorney, who said Vyhnánek apologized for what happened and regrets what he has done to the family. After the victims finished their testimony, the attorney said his client would apologize to them directly should he ever see them in Býchory.

The victimized owner had previously stated that he would have accepted an apology if it had been made immediately, instead of the perpetrator running away like a little boy after committing his crime. His girlfriend said it was all the same who had committed which part of the crime and whether it was racially motivated, because if their friends had not been visiting, things might have turned out much worse. She also said she might be able to accept an apology, but that she could neither forget nor forgive the crime at this time.

The incident took place on 11 July 2011, when Vojtěch Vyhnánek is said to have thrown a lit torch into the Romani home. The other defendants, Drahovzal, Řehák, and Jan Říha, accompanied him and shouted racist slogans. The torch set the curtains on fire, and the male visitor who was sleeping in the living room put it out. Fortunately, no one suffered any serious physical injury.

Klára Kalibová of the In IUSTITIA association has joined the proceedings as attorney for the victims seeking compensation for non-pecuniary harms. Her representation is part of a project aiding the victims of hate crimes through which In IUSTITIA and the ROMEA association provide counsel to hate crime victims. Kalibová wants the defendants to pay each of her four clients CZK 50 000 in damages. The defendants have been released on their own recognizance.