Czech trial reveals how years of prejudice can explode in violence

At the start of December, the trial began of a man charged with committing racially motivated grievous bodily harm, violence against an ethnic group and individuals, illegal drug production, trespassing, property damage and making threats under the influence of addictive substances. The start of the trial at the Regional Court was marked by the recent ice storm; while an associate justice, the Regional State Prosecutor, all five witnesses and the attorney for the victims waited in vain for two hours in the corridor of the courthouse, the presiding justice was unable to make it there because of the ice.

"Someone has to pay"

The court had no choice but to postpone the hearing until the next day, when only two of the witnesses made it. The main trial began with the victims submitting their proposal for sentencing and with the reading of the indictment.

According to the indictment, the defendant, in a state of medium drunkenness, got into his car one March morning and drove roughly 250 meters to a house where he knew a Romani family was living. He first punched in a casement window, then entered through an unlocked gate into the front yard, broke down the locked door to the house, entered the living room, which gave onto the kitchen, and attacked a middle-aged woman who was making lunch there with racist shouts and death threats. 

The intruder punched her until he noticed an older man in the living room. He told the woman not to move and threw himself at the man, beating him with a wooden tool handle and repeatedly banging his head against the floor until the man lost consciousness and lay motionless on the floor. 

In the meantime, the man’s heavily pregnant granddaughter, his daughter and her children managed to get out of the house by leaving through a window. According to the state prosecutor, the evidentiary situation is clear – the blood of the victim was found on the defendant’s clothes, which were found in his own home after the attack, and there was blood on the wooden tool handle he had used, which was also found in his home. 

The racial motivation of the crime is equally clear – the defendant had a very bad attitude about Romani people in general, which is why he chose to target the closest home where he believed a Romani family was living. In addition to the violent crimes, the state prosecutor has charged the defendant with driving his car while under the influence of alcohol and with cultivating marijuana in his home for some time prior to the incident in a growroom he legally purchased through the internet. 

An apology for something that never should have happened

The defendant was then questioned; prior to the trial he had refused to testify regarding the main facts of the indictment. In court he said he had decided to testify now.

He described his life prior to the incident as that of a mentally unstable loner who had been attempting to treat his psychological problems for years through drug use and whose apartment had been frequently robbed by "someone"; he had no faith in the local criminal police, because he believed they usually do not solve theft cases, and for that reason he stopped calling them whenever he became the victim of a property crime. When he discovered that someone had broken into his home yet again and stolen even more valuable objects with which he had a "strong emotional relationship", he said he got so drunk he couldn’t speak.

Today he claims he cannot remember what he did after that; all he remembers is that after he was arrested he had a breakdown at the police department and police took him to a psychiatric treatment facility. He was then remanded into custody, where he has remained ever since.

He characterized all of his actions as a "short-circuit" caused by his forlorn psychological situation. He claimed to have never been a member of any political movement, and said that in the past he had long maintained a friendly relationship with a Romani man with whom he played football. 

The defendant testified that in his opinion, he had never been a racist. However, at the same time he claimed that it is allegedly generally "known" how Romani people live in his town [i.e., allegedly as criminals], and that once in the past he had seen a Romani man near his home who had then fled; he followed the man, who hid in the house of the family whom the defendant is now charged with attacking.

However, the defendant said he did not know whether the Romani man actually lived there or was a member of the family. When asked by the state prosecutor why he hadn’t reported it to police, he said there would have been no point, as the police would have done nothing.

He then deeply apologized to all of the defendants and promised to sell all of his property so he can pay them compensation, undergo treatment, and start living an orderly life. Prior to the start of the main hearing, his attorney had already paid a significant amount of money on the defendant’s behalf to the victims as a down payment on their compensation.

"Don’t you know?"

In her testimony in court, the victimized woman described how the strange man suddenly appeared in her kitchen. She asked him "What’s going on?"

He answered "Don’t you know?" and immediately began to punch her in the head; in front of the young children who were watching, he then punched their grandfather. The victimized woman did not understand the defendant’s behavior because she had never met him before.

Fortunately, she managed to flee through the window with her children in her arms and to hide with them in a neighbor’s home. Someone called the police, who arrived at the scene shortly thereafter.

According to the indictment, the perpetrator fled to his own home nearby, where he changed clothes and then returned to the scene of the crime for his car. The police were there and arrested him.

The granddaughter of the victimized man also testified in court. She confirmed that she too had heard the perpetrator shout death threats and racist curses and, aware that she was supposed to give birth that week, she jumped out of the window and fled to her uncle’s house so he could call the police.

When asked by the judge, she testified that she gave birth the very next day  – in other words, early, as her expected time was supposed to have been a week later. She said her little boy was born healthy and that she herself only injured her knee, which has healed.

She also testified that she had not submitted any medical reports regarding the injury. The court then postponed the rest of the main hearing until the end of January because one of the main witnesses, a Ukrainian worker, has gone back to Ukraine for a longer winter vacation.

In the interim the court will commission an expert evaluation as to any eventual post-traumatic consequences of the crime on the woman who was physically attacked. News server Romea.cz will continue to report on the case while preserving the anonymity of the victims, as they do not want publicity.