Czech court commissions psychological assessment of 2009 neo-Nazi arsonist requesting early release
The District Court in Karviná, Czech Republic has held a hearing on the request for the early release of Jaromír Lukeš, one of two men sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the arson attack committed against a Romani family in Vítkov in 2009. Before the court decides on his request, it will commission a psychological assessment of the convict.
While the deadline for the assessment is not yet known, it should be performed within the next three months. Of the four men convicted of the attack on the Romani family, two have been granted early release under certain conditions.
Lukeš and accomplice David Vaculík still remain behind bars. Lukeš expressed regret for his actions during the hearing.
Representatives of the prison and the probation and mediation service have supported his request for early release. Allegedly, the convict’s resocialization is possible.
Lukeš is said to be a model prisoner. Should he ultimately be granted early release, he will have to meet several conditions, according to the probation and mediation service.
One condition would be that he would not be allowed to enter the municipality of Budišov nad Budišovkou, where the Romani family currently lives with their daughter Natálka, who was the most seriously injured by the arson. He would also not be allowed to contact Natálka.
Should Lukeš want to contact the family, he would only be allowed to do so through the probation and mediation service. Natálka’s mother, Anna Siváková, disagrees with his early release.
“We lost our property, our health, and our future. When the first two arsonists were released [early], we couldn’t believe it. [Lukeš] is paying us very little of the restitution he owes. He didn’t write a letter of apology until more than 10 years later,” she said in a statement read into the record by the judge.
Markus Pape, who is representing Pavel Kudrik, the father of Natálka, said that in his view Lukeš does not meet the conditions necessary for early release. “He is not paying damages,” Pape said.
All of the convicted perpetrators are supposed to pay a total of more than CZK 9 million [EUR 365,000] to Natálka and approximately CZK 7 million [EUR 284,000] to her health insurer. Lukeš has spent more than 15 years in prison, which is two-thirds of his sentence.
During the hearing on his early release request, he told the court that he takes a critical view of his life to date. “I am ashamed of my behavior back then. I regret my actions, I am sorry for the consequences that Natálka and her family have to live with. It is impossible to ever undo what was done, impossible to take it back. That makes me all the more angry. We deserved our punishment,” he said.
The convicted arsonist went on to say that he had behaved like a coward when he refused to testify during his initial trial. He only sent letters of apology to the family more than a decade afterward.
When asked why it had taken him so long to apologize, he testified that he hadn’t known how to go about it. He first sent money to the family as compensation for the damages caused in 2018.
Lukeš is paying the family CZK 400 [EUR 16] per month. He claims to have not had enough income previously to be able to pay what he owed.
Should he be granted early release, the convicted arsonist claims he will continue to pay damages. He claimed to have arranged to work as a construction site laborer and to live with an uncle.
Lukeš was an active member of the neo-Nazi scene in the Opava area and was one of the accomplices who initiated the arson attack. According to the verdict, it was he who selected the house in Vítkov as the group’s target.
The small group of ultra-right sympathizers visited the house in the late night hours of 18 April and the early morning hours of 19 April 2009. Three masked perpetrators each threw one Molotov cocktail each through the ground-floor windows of the building.
The arsonists then fled the scene in a car that was waiting for them, driven by an accomplice. The powerful blaze they started almost cost the life of Natálka and physically injured her father and mother.
There were eight people in the house at the time of the attack. Little Natálka was the most seriously injured, suffering burns over almost 80 % of her body.
She was taken to hospital in critical condition and was not released until eight months later. She lost three fingers and has other lifelong medical repercussions, including the need to repeatedly undergo surgery.
Kudrik and Siváková were also physically injured during the fire, although much less seriously. One year ago in May, the District Court in Šumperk conditionally released two of the accomplices to the arson, Václav Cojocaru and Ivo Müller, after they served two-thirds of their sentences for racially-motivated attempted murder.
