News server iDNES.cz reports that 23-year-old Lukáš Král of Ostrava underwent a traumatic experience last week when he was attacked by an 18-year-old man just before noon at a tram stop and robbed of his mobile phone. Král, a local candidate on the list of the ANO movement, described the incident on Facebook, sparking an emotional, racist discussion.
"I was assaulted from behind by a Romani man who wanted to steal my mobile phone. I have a slight concussion and I am under police protection," Král, who is a wheelchair user, wrote to journalists last Wednesday. He is running in fifth place on the ANO list.
The violent thug is said to have grabbed Král from behind by his hair and to have struck his head against the handle on the back of the wheelchair. He then grabbed the mobile phone from his hand and fled.
Král immediately informed police officers, who arrested the alleged assailant shortly thereafter. "Currently an 18-year-old man has been charged with felony robbery and his 47-year-old accomplice is charged with felony conspiracy in this matter. Right now detectives are filing a motion with the state attorney for both of them to be remanded into custody," Daniela Vlčkovává, spokesperson for the police in Ostrava, told iDNES.cz.
Král, however, did not wait for the police investigation to reach any conclusions, according to iDNES.cz. Last Wednesday he created a page on Facebook describing the assault and the alleged attacker, posting his name and his photograph.
The Facebook page opened with the words "… violent Roma should be afraid of us!!! not us of them". The discussion on the page gradually began to degenerate into a crude anti-Roma campaign.
Král did not object when anti-Roma posts appeared on the page; on the contrary, he asked for them to be distributed and shared. On Thursday he closed the page, which was full of racist posts espousing the principle of collective blame.
Journalists with iDNES.cz. have discovered that the information Král gave to the media was not completely truthful. The candidate claimed to be under police protection, but police officers said he was not.
When confronted with that information, Král claimed that the protection would be starting the next day. He had also claimed in his statement to the media that doctors had diagnosed him with a light concussion.
From a photocopy of the medical report, however, iDNES.cz journalists have discovered that claim was also untrue. "That was written just a couple of hours after the mugging when I was still angry, maybe I took it a bit subjectively. I apologize for that," the candidate told iDNES.cz.
"All violence is deplorable. It is especially cowardly to attack someone from behind, especially a person in a wheelchair. The perpetrator of this crime should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. On the other hand, a specific individual was responsible for this specific crime. The principle of collective blame is unacceptable," said Zdeněk Ryšavý, director of the ROMEA organization.
