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Czech state prosecutor objects to release of Romani people charged with Duchcov attack, they remain in custody

06 September 2013
2 minute read

The state prosecutor has filed a complaint against a recent decision to release from custody the three Romani people who assaulted a non-Romani married couple this past May in the town of Duchcov, an incident that prompted an ongoing series of anti-Roma demonstrations there. The defendants are remaining in custody for the time being.

Roman Dobeš, the presiding judge at the District Court in Teplice, informed the Czech News Agency of this turn of events on 4 September. The Regional Court, which previously remanded the defendants into custody after the state prosecutor filed an initial complaint in the case, will now decide whether to keep them in custody.

Police have qualified the assault as attempted grievous bodily harm. After the first complaint was filed by the state prosecutor, the Regional Court remanded three of the five defendants, who range in age from 16 to 44, into custody.

"A judge has now decided to release them from custody, but the state prosecutor filed a complaint which has postponed their release," Dobeš said. The District Court first decided whether to remand the defendants into custody on 23 May, ultimately choosing their supervision by the probation and mediation services.

The Regional Court then remanded them into custody after the prosecutor filed a complaint. "From mid-May when the crime was committed, until 11 July when the Regional Court remanded them into custody, they led orderly lives, voluntarily met with the probation and mediation services, and did not commit any other crimes," Judge Martin Parolek, who handled the case at the District Court in Teplice, told news server iDNES.cz.

Police say the assailants attacked the young married couple on the night of 18 May when they were returning home from a discotheque. The wife was knocked to the ground, kicked and punched.

The four adult defendants face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of attempted grievous bodily harm. The assault in May unleashed anti-Roma unrest in the town of 9 000.  

During the largest such incident, in June, several hundred people demonstrated at an event convened by the Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS). The neo-Nazis next attempted a pogrom on local Romani people but were prevented by police from carrying it out.

When confronted by police officers, right-wing extremists attacked with bottles and rocks, and police responded with tear gas and water cannon. A total of four hate-filled, anti-Roma marches have already been held in the town, and the right-wing extremist DSSS is planning an election rally there for 12 October. 

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