Czech court upholds acquittal, light sentence for assailants of human rights monitor
An appeals court has once again reviewed the November 2008 assault of activist Ondřej Cakl during a neo-Nazi demonstration at the Janov housing estate in Litvínov. The court did not accept Cakl’s reasoning and has upheld the sentence handed down against one of the assailants by the first-instance court. The appeals court also upheld the acquittal of a second alleged assailant.
First defendant: 300 hours community service
The appeal, filed by Klára Kalibová of the In IUSTITIA association, the attorney for the assaulted activist and a leading Czech expert on hate violence, was not taken into consideration by the court. František Brávek has now been sentenced by the appeals court to perform 300 hours of community service for his assault on Ondřej Cakl.
The court did not award any damages to the victim. Ondřej Cakl, or rather, the Tolerance and Civil Society association (Tolerance a občanská společnost), which owned the video camera damaged by the assailants, was instructed to seek compensation through a civil proceedings, as the appeals court believed further proof was needed of the defendant’s role in that damage.
According to the District Court in Most, the primary evidence against Brávek is photographs and video recordings showing him kicking Cakl as he lies on the ground. According to the defendant, the footage and photographs are not reliable because the person depicted is shown from behind and is wearing a hood.
"I do not believe that is me in the photos," Brávek told the court. He has been convicted twice previously of grievous bodily harm and rioting. For one of those offenses he ended up in prison after not meeting the terms of his parole, while for the other he was sentenced to 400 days of community service.
Cakl himself is not 100 % sure whether Brávek was one of the assailants. "I cannot say the defendant was one of the attackers just going by my memories of the crime scene, but on the basis of the photographs and videos taken by journalists who were present, I can say it was him," Cakl told the court.
It is an interesting fact that of the 13 persons charged with breaking the law during the march, only František Brávek has been convicted. All of the others have either been acquitted or had their cases evaluated as misdemeanors.
"I am most bothered by the fact that the main assailant was never brought to court and it’s as if the others never committed any crime. Specific people did kick me," Ondřej Cakl told news server Romea.cz.
"I have kept an eye out for the other assailants and 14 days ago I filed criminal charges against them. The local police department in Janov accepted the charges and sent them to Most, which is handling the case. Of course, these are men who were wearing hoods, so we’ll see how those criminal charges end up," Cakl said.
Second defendant acquitted
Martin Loskot, the second defendant in this matter, was acquitted by the appeals court just as he had been one year prior. According to attorney Kalibová, the acquittal is proof of the justice system’s incompetence.
Kalibová is convinced the court did not handle the evidence against Loskot appropriately. "The court has completely ignored a video recording showing that the defendant wanted to attack Cakl and that he committed brutality and rioted in public. In my view, Loskot should unequivocally be convicted of these charges. The inability of the justice system to convict the perpetrator of an assault four years after the incident is alarming. This sends the signal that neo-Nazis can attack people as a matter of course, completely with impunity. This verdict might lead to radicalizing neo-Nazi youth, because a prominent anti-fascist who chose to address this incident through criminal proceedings has not received a fair decision," she told news server Romea.cz immediately after the verdict was handed down.
Kalibová has been convinced from the start that the court should not have qualified the case as one of rioting. In her view, this was a case of felony violence against a member of a group, because Cakl is a famous citizen activist with the Tolerance and Civil Society association, which monitors neo-Nazi activities.
The neo-Nazi march
In November 2008, the Autonomous Nationalists marched through Litvínov with the aim of provoking violence against the Romani community living in a socially excluded locality. Cakl, who has long monitored the neo-Nazi scene, was filming the march as it headed for the Janov housing estate.
Cakl has testified that someone grabbed him from behind and pushed him to the ground. Several people kicked him and someone threw a rock at him.
The entire incident was so brief that Cakl was unable to recognize any of the assailants, as he was mainly doing his best to flee. The assailants destroyed his video camera and tore his clothing.
The march on 17 November 2008 was attended by about 500 ultra-right promoters who did their best to march through the predominantly Romani-inhabited Janov housing estate. The marchers clashed with police officers.
The massive street battle that ensued took police up to two hours to resolve and resulted in 14 injuries. Police deployed around 1 000 officers.
