Czech court sends anti-Romani rabble rouser to prison for fraud

TV NOVA reported yesterday that the District Court in Děčín has sentenced Lukáš Kohout to seven years in prison for fraud. Kohout and an accomplice established various fictional associations in northern Bohemia and used them to place orders for goods.

The verdict has yet to take effect. Kohout is now in custody, waiting to hear whether he might be sent straight to prison to serve yet another sentence against him that has already taken effect.

Kohout previously was sentenced to 10 months in prison for impersonating an assistant to Jan Kavan in 2002, who at the time was both the Czech Foreign Minister and chair of the UN General Assembly, and for using state money to fly to exotic countries. Trials on other charges also await him.  

In recent years Kohout has organized anti-Romani demonstrations in northern Bohemia. Three years ago he initiated protests in the Šluknov foothills, and this year he targeted Romani people in the town of Děčín.