Czech Republic: Two neo-Nazi arsonists request parole, Romani mother of burn victim disagrees
The Czech daily Právo reports that two of the four convicted arsonists who committed a racially-motivated attack with Molotov cocktails on the home of a Romani family in Vítkov (Opava district) that almost cost the life of their two-year-old daughter Natálka have asked for parole.
“The District Court in Šumperk has their requests for conditional release,” the daily reports.
Exceptional punishments for racially-motivated attempted murder
In the late night hours of 18 April and early morning hours of 19 April 2009, a small group of extreme-right sympathizers used Molotov cocktails to attack house number 58 in Vítkov (Opava district), which was inhabited by a Romani family. Three masked perpetrators threw one gas-filled bottle each through the ground-floor windows.
The arsonists then got into a car where an accomplice was waiting and disappeared from the scene. The powerful fire they started almost cost Natálka her life and injured her father and mother.
Natálka suffered burns over 80 % of her body. She was brought to hospital in critical condition and was not released until eight months later.
The little girl lost three fingers on one hand and will cope with other consequences of her injuries for the rest of her life, repeatedly undergoing operations. Police managed to apprehend the perpetrators of this racially-motivated crime after four months.
Perpetrators Jaromír Lukeš and David Vaculík were sentenced to 22 years in prison for racially-motivated attempted murder. Their accomplices, Václav Cojocaru and Ivo Müller, got 20 years.
Two perpetrators have already served two-thirds of their sentences
Cojocaru and Müller have requested parole now that they have served two-thirds of their sentences. “Both of those named have already filed a request for conditional release. The date of the proceedings has yet to be set,” René Braun, spokesperson for the court in Šumperk, told Právo.
The date of the hearing should be clear in the spring. Cojocaru and Müller showed contrition during their trial and have begun to pay Natálka the millions in compensation they owe her, although they are just doing so in small amounts.
Anna Siváková, the mother of Natálka, does not agree they should be paroled. “The two of them together send us about CZK 3,000 [EUR 125] a month, Lukeš sends CZK 150 or 200 [EUR 6 or 8]. The only one who has never sent us anthing is Vaculík,” she told the daily.
“Natálka is suffering and will suffer until she dies, but those who did this to her are supposed to go free and live normal lives? I don’t agree with that, 13 years is not enough,” Siváková said.
Perpetrators were members of the neo-Nazi movement
The trial began in May 2010 in Ostrava. Václav Cojocaru, Jaromír Lukeš, Ivo Müller and David Vaculík sat on the bench for defendants.
According to experts on extremism, all four young men were active neo-Nazis, which was proven by items found during house searches. Vaculík, moreover, came to court more than once wearing the Thor Steinar brand of clothing, a favorite among neo-Nazis.
The defendants argued that they never suspected the single-family home was inhabited. They claimed to have considered it a warehouse of stolen property.
The defense asked the court not to assess the crime as attempted murder, but as reckless endangerment or battery. One of their attorneys even indirectly blamed Natálka’s parents of being co-responsible for her grave injuries, alleging they brought her out of the burning room too late.
The first-instance verdict was announced on 20 October 2010. “We have come to the opinion that the defendants knew the home was occupied,” the judge said.
He called the action a brutal attack and compared it to Kristallnacht, during which the Nazis, in November 1938, set synagogues and other Jewish targets on fire. According to the verdict, the men planned their attack as a substitute for the fact that they were unable to attend a neo-Nazi demonstration due to the high cost of the travel.
