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First-graders from Czech school subjected to racist attacks online receive tablets thanks to ROMEA's fundraising drive

2.7.2018 6:15 Children attending the primary school in Teplice that faced a wave of racist online commentaries in the autumn of 2017 were given tablets and other small gifts during the end-of-year celebration that were bought for them by the school with the proceeds from the ROMEA organization's fundraising campaign on their behalf. At last Thursday's celebration, graduating pupils were given a sash to wear and were accompanied by the first-graders in addition to their teachers during the ceremony.  full story

Ukraine: Third arson attack against Roma in a month, firearms also used against 7 adults, 30+ children

24.5.2018 17:01 According to the Ukrainian ombudsman, on 22 May approximately 12 assailants set a Romani camp on fire in the Ternopil region of western Ukraine. At the moment of the attack there were seven adults and more than 30 young Romani children at the camp.  full story

Czech trial of shooting at Romani music camp hears testimony about shooter's verbal abuse as well

23.5.2018 16:37 Court testimony by another eyewitness to the 2016 shooting incident at a summer camp continued yesterday at the District Court in Děčín. Martin Kout is accused of having fired a gun and racially abused those attending a children's camp in 2016.
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Czech MP and educator "understands" why some are calling for murder of first-graders

11.11.2017 7:52 Speaking with the daily Týdeník Směr, Czech MP Tereza Hyťhová (Freedom and Direct Democracy - SPD), who is a pedagogue, has expressed understanding for the people who have posted death threats and other hateful commentaries recently to social networking sites beneath a photograph of a first grade class from the Prosetice quarter of Teplice. The children photographed are mostly of Arab, Romani or Vietnamese origin.

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Czech court holds trial of man who threatened Romani children with gunfire at summer camp

1.11.2017 12:56 Last week the District Court in Děčín opened the trial of the shooting and vulgar verbal assault committed against children participating in the Čhavorenge children's choir ensemble, directed by Ida Kelarová, in the Děčín area in August 2016. The trial was scheduled after the defendant, Martin Kout, objected to a court order finding him guilty of rioting.  full story

Czech prosecutor says death threats and racist abuse committed through Facebook not necessarily crimes

2.8.2017 9:32 The ROMEA organization filed more than 10 reports of suspected crimes at the beginning of this year against persons who used online social networks to post racist verbal attacks against Romani people and members of other minorities, including threatening them with physical destruction. The Prague 1 District State Prosecutor subsequently sent just four of those reports to the Prague 1 District Police Directorate for investigation.  full story

Woman assaults two headscarf-wearing women in Czech capital as they take children to swim

23.7.2017 13:26 An aggressive woman assaulted two Muslim women accompanying 13 children to the Divoka Šárka aquapark in Prague on Wednesday. The aggressor began the conflict by
photographing the Muslim women and the children.  full story

ROMEA reports 10+ criminal incidents involving racist commentaries and threats on Facebook to the Czech Police

23.3.2017 16:36 During the past two months, the ROMEA organization has reported more than 10 suspected crimes involving racist posts and threats made through the Internet in which some people discussing online have verbally assaulted minorities, Roma included. In four of these cases, however, the police have not responded within the timeframe established by law for informing those who report suspected crimes as to whether police have taken any measures at all in those matters.  full story

Czech Police charge man with attack on NGO that organized donations for refugees

11.11.2016 6:29 Police in the Czech town of Pardubice have charged a 22-year-old man on suspicion of committing an attack in April 2016 on the Kašpárek Family Center by pouring paint on the doors and wall of the center and pasting a fictional obituary of center director Olga Pavlů on the front window. The man is charged with committing property damage and threatening danger.  full story

Analysis: When the Czech Police contribute to disseminating hatred toward Romani people

1.9.2016 17:38 Whoever publicly incites hatred of a nation, race, ethnic group, religion, class or other group of person, or incites the restriction of the rights and freedoms of the members of such a group, is supposed to be punished in the Czech Republic by up to two years in prison. That is the wording of the Criminal Code (Section 356), which also authorizes the same punishment in cases of rioting or conspiring to commit the offense of incitement to hatred.  full story

Czech court says police must further investigate ultra-right activist's hate speech about Muslims

15.8.2016 17:20 The Regional Court in České Budějovice has returned the case against ultra-right activist Martin Konvička, who is suspected of inciting hatred against the religion of Islam, back to the public prosecutor. The case was initially returned to the prosecutor by the first-instance court there.  full story

EU Commissioners on Roma Holocaust Memorial Day: Too many Roma are victims of hate crime in Europe

2.8.2016 14:44 News server NewEurope.eu reports that First Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, and Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Commissioner Věra Jourová have issued a joint statement on the occasion of Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. The statement recalls that on the night of 2 to 3 August 1944, around 3 000 Roma men, women and children from the "Gypsy family camp" of Auschwitz-Birkenau were murdered in the gas chambers.  full story

Czech Republic: Extremists sentenced to almost 7 years in prison for arson attack

26.6.2016 16:18 Tomáš Kopecký and Michal Poláček, the men responsible for an arson attack on a residential hotel occupied by Romani people in the Czech town of Aš, will serve six years and nine months in prison. The High Court in Prague sentenced them on 22 June for racially-motivated attempted murder and reckless endangerment.  full story

Czech Republic: New handbook advises foreign nationals on how to respond to hate

24.5.2016 10:31 Foreigners who become the target of hateful assaults in the Czech Republic can find advice on how to address their situations in a new handbook. Instructions on how to report a crime and what a criminal investigation and trial entails are described there.  full story

video Czech Republic: Five charged for neo-Nazi assault on demonstration in favor of receiving refugees

16.5.2016 8:42 Prague Police officers have launched the prosecutions of five men who rioted in February during an incident on Thunovská Street in Prague. Masked rioters assaulted a march by activists who were supporting migrants.  full story

Prague City Hall joins Czech Government's "HateFree" campaign despite Prague City Assembly vote against it

6.5.2016 13:22 Prague City Hall has decided to join the "HateFree Culture" campaign calling for tolerance of minorities and refugees despite a decision by the Prague City Assembly not to do so. The decision to join the campaign was taken on 3 May by the Prague City Council.  full story

Czech Republic: 2 000 demonstrate against racism in Prague after neo-Nazis graffiti "HateFree" cafés

27.4.2016 15:11 On 25 April as many as 2 000 people assembled on Jiřího z Poděbrad Square in Prague to protest against the fact that several businesses and metro stations in Prague were spray-painted with neo-Nazi slogans and symbols over the weekend. Organizers of Monday's event, called "Prague is Not Afraid", wanted to demonstrate that there is no place in Czech society for Nazi ideology and violence.  full story

Czech Republic: Seven-year anniversary of neo-Nazi arson attack on Romani family home in Vítkov

19.4.2016 12:09 Seven years ago, during the late night hours of 18 April and the early morning hours of 19 April 2009, four neo-Nazis threw Molotov cocktails into a single-family home in the town of Vítkov (Opava district), where a Romani family was living. During the subsequent blaze three people were injured, including the family's youngest daughter, Natálka, who suffered burns over 80 % of her body before she was even two years old.  full story

Czech NGO report finds Muslims and Roma most frequent victims of hate violence

16.3.2016 18:16 A total of 86 cases of hate violence in the Czech Republic were recorded during the year 2014 by the In IUSTITIA organization, which aids the victims of such crimes. The incidents most frequently happened because of the victims' actual or perceived ethnicity, nationality, or religious faith.  full story

videoVideo footage shows recently-elected Slovak MP attacking Arab family including children last year

14.3.2016 18:41 Milan Mazurek (age 22) is a violent racist who will be seated in the Slovak Parliament on behalf of Marian Kotleba's fascist party, the People's Party Our Slovakia (Lidová strana Naše Slovensko - LSNS), as was documented last year when he vulgarly shouted at an Arab family with children who were being protected by police officers when extremists began throwing rocks at them during an anti-immigrant demonstration in Bratislava. Mazurek will be seated instead of the originally-elected LSNS candidate, who has had to give up his Parliamentary seat because he is being prosecuted for having assaulted a dark-skinned foreign national in 2014.  full story