Czech police officers testify about 2012 death of Romani man

Last week two police officers from the Czech town of Kynšperk nad Ohří began giving testimony before the District Court in Sokolov in the trial of a negligent homicide. The indictment charges them with having committed the offense in May 2012 while they were attempting to arrest Ludovít Kašpar, a Romani suspect who collapsed during the intervention and died in hospital two days later.

Mr Kašpar’s family is seeking one million Czech crowns in compensation from the officers. The indictment charges them with having used their collapsible truncheons during the intervention in such a way as to suffocate the man, whose brain subsequently swelled and who ultimately died in hospital even after being resuscitated at the scene. 

Both police officers remain on active duty. The tragedy occurred on 5 May 2012, when officers Pavel Herink and Vítězslav Novák were sent to handle a report of rioting or possible assault. 

Calls to police said a man weighing about 100 kg had been committing the disturbance. The officers caught up with Mr Kašpar (age 33), who met that description, near a wooden footbridge in Kynšperk.   

Herink and Novák said the suspect had showed signs of drunkenness or drug use. Speaking in court on 18 February, the officers claimed that Mr Kašpar had behaved strangely, refusing to obey their orders or undergo a breath test. 

When they tried to force the suspect to take a breath test, he began to brawl with them. The officers described what happened using phrases such as "superhuman strength", saying the suspect stood "as if chained to the earth". 

While all of the witnesses who testified corroborated the claim that Mr Kašpar was often unable to control himself when he drank and that people feared him, a laboratory test conducted after his autopsy did not confirm the presence of alcohol in his blood. Two witnesses insist that he had taken a box of wine from them prior to the incident with the officers and had drunken all of it.

The defense has said it wants to investigate whether the blood sample tested was the correct one. The death of Mr Kašpar sparked a great deal of passion in Kynšperk, where demonstrations were held calling for his death to be investigated.  

The case was taken up by the Inspectorate and its investigation resulted in the negligent homicide charges. Should they be convicted, the police officers face between one and six years in prison.