EXCLUSIVE: Martin Barkóci on “Ten Minutes with Tomáš Bystrý”

Anchor Tomáš Bystrý has paid a visit to 32-year-old former police officer Martin Barkóci, now serving a three-year sentence in Oráčov prison for the crimes of abusing the power of a public official and extortion. Bystrý has filmed an interview with Barkóci as a special installment of his “Ten Minutes” internet broadcast.

Last spring, most of the media in the Czech Republic reported on the alleged “racial lynching” that was said to have taken place when two Romani men allegedly attacked and brutally beat up a certain Mr Březina, allegedly an employee of the Czech Police Organized Crime Detection Unit. Romani police officer Martin Barkóci, who arrived at the scene to intervene, allegedly called his superiors to say nothing was happening and then allegedly threatened the beaten man, telling him to reconsider what sort of testimony he would give about the incident. The alleged victim then gave his testimony to the court in private session. During the collection of evidence, it was suspected that the alleged victim’s life might be at risk, and he was therefore placed in a special witness protection program. Many questions about the case remain unanswered (see the previous report “Romani police officer Barkóci in prison, Czech Senator Horník wants to reopen his case” http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_1361).

In this segment of “Ten Minutes”, the former police officer recapitulates the entire affair, talking about his high school and college days and his relationship to Březina. The recording (in Czech only) can be found at:

http://www.romea.cz/romeatv/index.php?id=detail&source=t&vid=qxydfygimzM&detail=qxydfygimzM