arson attack

Racist commentaries were posted beneath a news item on mainstream news server Novinky.cz on 8 August 2020 about a tragic incident in Bohumín, Czech Republic, where 11 people, three of them children, died as the result of arson committed on the 11th floor of an apartment building. (Collage: Romea.cz)
Czech commentator expected stronger condemnation by politicians of the racist reactions to the worst arson attack since 1990
21.8.2020 16:31 full story
11 deaths in fire, worst such death toll since 1990, met with antigypsyist celebration by Czech Internet
10.8.2020 8:39 full story
Italy: 1 000 attend march to mourn Romani children who died in arson attack
19.5.2017 12:46 Roughly 1 000 people in Rome, Italy attended a march to protest the brutal arson attack at the Primavera shopping center during which three Romani sisters died, two of themminors, last week. People have now planted three olive trees in their memory. full story

Director of ODIHR on arson in Italy that killed Romani children: If this was racism there must be a strong reaction
15.5.2017 7:58 Michael G. Link, the director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) hascondemned the murder of three Romani sisters aged four, eight and 20 last week. They died after a Molotov cocktail attack on the caravan in which they were sleeping with their parents and other siblings on 10 May 2017 in Rome, Italy. full story

Italy: Two Romani children and their older sister die in arson attack
11.5.2017 9:49 ANSA, the Italian wire service, reported yesterday that two Romani girls ages four and eight and their 20-year-old sister died early yesterday morning during an arson attack in Rome, Italy. The assailant's identity has not yet been ascertained. full story
Romania: Ethnic Hungarian mob commits arson against Romani children accused of stealing
18.4.2017 7:14 The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) reports that on the last Friday in March an arson attack was committed in the small town of Gheorgheni, Romania against a Romani-occupied home. Agricultural storage buildings, an annex to the home, the home itself and other outbuildings were burned to the ground. full story
Czech Supreme Court upholds sentencing for neo-Nazi who attempted to burn 18 Romani people, eight of them children, to death
7.4.2017 9:47 Tomáš Kopecký, the man who committed a 2012 arson attack on a Romani-occupied residential hotel in the Czech town of Aš, must serve a prison sentence of six years and nine months, according to the Supreme Court. There were 18 people, eight of them children, in the building at the time. full story
Germany: More than 3 000 attacks on refugees in 2016
7.3.2017 8:39 German authorities registered almost 10 violent attacks against immigrants daily during the course of 2016. A total of 560 people, 43 of them children, were injured during them. full story
German court sentences xenophobes to seven and eight-year prison sentences for arson
17.2.2017 12:22 Six men, including a member of the ultra-right National Democratic Party (Národnědemokratická strana - NPD), have been convicted by a court in Germany of committing arson against a building slated for use as an asylum-seekers' shelter in 2015. Politician Maik Schneider has received the longest sentence. full storyGermany: Pegida speechmaker charged with arson against mosque
14.12.2016 22:35 On 9 December the German media reported that the Federal General Prosecutor has filed charges against a man named Nino K. alleging that he committed arson attacks against a mosque during the week prior to the September celebration of the state holiday of German reunification. He is also charged with committing arson against the Congress Center in Dresden and planting fake bombs on a bridge there. full story
England: Arsonists attack Polish family in Plymouth
8.7.2016 11:00 Unidentified perpetrators have set fire to a shed near a home occupied by a Polish family in Plymouth, a town in the southwest of England. The family also received a letter threatening to attack them directly next time. 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
Austria: Arsonists set future asylum-seeker shelter on fire
9.6.2016 6:38 A wooden building in the north of Austria near the Czech and German borders that was supposed to become a shelter for asylum seekers was set on fire last week. According to representatives of the Red Cross, which owns the building, the fire was set by arsonists. full story
Austria: Arson attacks against Romani families from Romania
11.3.2016 20:38 Unidentified perpetrators set fire to the tents of Romani families from Romania in the Upper Austrian city of Linz at the beginning of March. Fortunately, no one was injured in that incident. full story
Attila Balogh Hidvégi on serial murders in Hungary: Even brutal crimes did not spark Romani solidarity
19.1.2016 21:10 In connection with the recent verdict of the Hungarian Supreme Court upholding life sentences for three perpetrators of the serial murders of Romani people in Hungary and a 13-year sentence for their accomplice, news server Romea.cz is presenting in translation the following commentary by Romani journalist Attila Balogh Hidvégi who, according to his account, has followed this scandal intensively from the beginning and is completely, thoroughly familiar not just with the text of the indictment, but also with the events that occurred between the various hearings in the case. Hidvégi published his commentary on www.romnet.hu and we are reprinting it in translation here in a shortened form with their kind permission: full story
Trial of the Czech cell of Blood & Honour enters its final phase
17.10.2015 15:27 A nine-member group of alleged neo-Nazis from various parts of the Czech Republic has been on trial before the Regional Court in Plzeň since February. From 12-13 October, closing arguments in the case were made by the prosecution, the attorney for the victims, and two of the defendants gave final statements. full story
Germany: Arsonists set another refugee facility on fire, shooting also reported
16.7.2015 18:09 Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports that unidentified arsonists in Germany have set yet another building on fire that had been prepared to accommodate refugees. Last night arsonists attacked the still-empty complex in the Bavarian town of Reichertshofen.full story

Czech state removes children of Romani arson victim from her care
18.5.2015 21:40 At the beginning of May the trial continued at the Regional Court in Plzeň in the matter of the allegedly organized group that has been using the names "Blood and Honour" or "Combat 18". Some members of the group, according to the indictment, are said to have carried out an arson attack on a residential hotel occupied mostly by Romani families in the West Bohemian town of Aš in 2012. full story
Czech arson suspect says he knew Roma lived in the building
11.4.2015 3:15, (ROMEA) At the start of April, the trial continued at the Regional Court in Plzeň of a nine-member, allegedly organized group of neo-Nazis from various parts of the country which news server Romea.cz previously reported on here. According to the indictment, the group used the Internet to call for violent attacks on minorities, political party headquarters, representatives of the Government or the police and planned to attack specific individuals. full story