Czech judge announces arrest warrant for neo-Nazi who allegedly planned armed assault on the Government - he has led anti-Romani demos and protests against the ROMEA organization

The District Court for Prague-East has been prevented for a second time from hearing the case of Pavel Matějný, indicted for allegedly making threats in February 2024 on social media to attack the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic in Prague with a machine gun. Matějný has previously organized anti-Romani protests and has spoken out against the ROMEA NGO; he claimed health reasons prevented his attending the hearing, just as he did in May.

The judge said he will now issue a second arrest warrant for Matějný. According to previously reported information, he faces a prison sentence of between three and 10 years if convicted.

The social network threat was noticed by criminal investigators from the Department of Extremism and Terrorism in the Prague Police and was made on the weekend before a planned farmers’ protest that took place on Monday, 19 February 2024. The police arrested Matějný and during a search of his home found an illegally possessed submachine gun with magazines containing live ammunition.

The District Court was originally scheduled to hear the case in early May this year, but Matějný claimed health reasons prevented him from attending. Judge Jan Bouda issued an arrest warrant for him and he appeared in court last week and promised to attend the hearing scheduled for 10 June.

However, less than an hour before the hearing was to start, Matějný sent the court an apology stating that he could not attend due to his deteriorating health. Bouda was therefore forced to postpone the hearing yet again.

The judge said he would issue another arrest warrant for Matějný and would not rule out the possibility of taking him into custody. The Novinky.cz news server reports that Matějný is accused of five crimes: illegal arms possession; incitement to commit a crime; committing violence against a group of people; defaming an ethnic, national, racial or other group of people; and the founding, promoting, and supporting of a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms.

The indictment covers other posts Matějný made on social networks in addition to his threat to undertake an armed assault on the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic.

Who is Pavel Matějný? Former rioter, organizer of anti-Romani demonstrations, and well-known neo-Nazi

Matějný has long been notorious for participating in extremist, neo-Nazi activities. In 2013 he caused one of the more aggressive incidents perpetrated during a rally of the Workers’ Social Justice Party (DSSS) in Duchcov by assaulting police officers.

The violence damaged 11 police vehicles, injuring 11 officers and a journalist. Police charged three persons with assaulting public officials and rioting.

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Matějný has contributed to organizing many anti-Romani demonstrations. In February 2014, for instance, he convened a protest in Příbram directly targeting the ROMEA organization.

About 30 persons attended that event, during which speakers defamed Romani people and spread hate speech. Matějný’s name is also connected with support for the racist arsonists who attacked a Romani family in Vítkov in 2009.

In 2016, Matějný contributed to organizing demonstrations during which calls were made to raise money to aid the convicted perpetrators of that arson attack, during which Natálka, a two-year-old Romani girl, was severely injured. He is also a member of the extremist Národní obroda [National Renewal] society and attends other hate events.

Matějný has also spoken out against the LGBT community during previous editions of Prague Pride.