Czech court sentences racially-motivated assailants for 2022 attack on foreign national in the capital
Two men have been convicted of committing a racially-motivated attack in Prague, Czech Republic against a bus passenger who is a foreign national. Perpetrator Vlastimil Č. was sentenced to eight months in prison without the possibility of parole, while perpetrator Jaroslav Č. was given a year-long prison sentence, suspended for two years.
The men were convicted of assaulting a man from Africa, B. S. K., because of his skin color. According to a press release from the In IUSTITIA organization, which provided legal aid to the injured party, the incident transpired on 15 August 2022.
B. S. K. was on the bus when the assailants began to verbally insult him and make death threats against him. One even spat at him.
When they all exited the bus at the next stop, the perpetrators physically assaulted B. S. K. They punched him in the face, kicked him, and robbed him of his mobile telephone.
Vlastimil Č. also threw an electric scooter at B. S. K. The foreign national suffered injuries to his body and head and was extremely traumatized, both by the assault itself and by the inactivity of the bus driver and his fellow passengers during the attack.
The District Court for Prague 3 handed down its guilty verdict for both assailants on 6 March and emphasized the racist motive for their behavior. “I appreciate that the judge emphasized the racist motivation behind the behavior of both perpetrators when justifying this punishment and when acknowledging that the injured party is entitled to compensation for his suffering. Bias attacks deeply impact an individual’s private life, reducing his own sense of security and that of his entire community, and they are potentially able to destabilize an entire society. For that reason, it is important to make it clear to such perpetrators that under the democratic legal order, it is impossible for such attacks to be tolerated under any circumstances,” said In IUSTITIA’s attorney Tomáš Stavrovský, who represented B. S. K.
