Czech Police charge two Romani men and one Ukrainian over street brawl in Pardubice
The police have charged three men with rioting because of their involvement in the mass brawl between Romani and Ukrainian people that took place on 1 July in Pardubice, Czech Republic. The prosecutor's statement indirectly revealed that two of those charged are Romani and one is a Ukrainian citizen.
The investigation is expected to be closed by the end of this month. The incident sparked protests by some Romani people.
Police originally suspected three foreign nationals of rioting, but persons from both communities are now being prosecuted. “The police started the prosecution of a total of three persons for the offense of rioting under Section 358 para. 1 of the Penal Code. Two of the accused are Czech citizens and one is a Ukrainian citizen,” prosecutor Aleš Veselý told Romea.cz.
The prosecutor refused to clarify whether the Ukrainian citizens involved in the incident had arrived in the Czech Republic after Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine last year. “As far as the comments on social media about the date of arrival of these foreign nationals to the Czech Republic or the length of their stay in the Czech Republic, neither I nor the supervising prosecutor, Mgr. Pavel Zelenka, will be commenting on that,” Veselý told Romea.cz in August.
As news server Romea.cz previously reported, one of the Romani men involved in the incident was lightly injured. Hundreds of Romani people convened a demonstration a day later in Pardubice calling for better security on the streets of the city.
Similar demonstrations by Romani residents were held this summer in Brno and in Krupka in the Teplice district. Representatives of the city, police, and the Romani and Ukrainian communities came together in Pardubice on 3 July to discuss the situation.
According to police spokesperson Markéta Janovská, all parties affected agreed that the conflict in Anenská Street was an isolated incident and not the result of some sort of long-running disputes between the communities. The Pardubice Roma said their intention had been to demonstrate peacefully, but Romani people from other cities joined the gathering and voiced hate speech against Ukrainians, which they disliked.
