Eyewitness says assailants shouting racist abuse and beating Romani man before he died were in full view of Czech Police
The video above is an interview with an eyewitness who saw part of the incident on 18 October in the Czech town of Žatec that resulted in the death of a Romani man. Eyewitness Miroslav Mašek says he saw the incident through the glass wall of the pizzeria.
The eyewitness claims that, in full view of the police, the other people involved in the conflict shouted racist vulgarities at the young man and continued to physically assault him. Here is a translated transcript of the edited interview:
Eyewitness Miroslav Mašek: The first thing I saw was that they were already beating the guy, they were beating him there, and the cops were already there, I am 1 000 per cent sure of that, and the cops already had a hold of him, and then they got him on the ground, and once they had him on the ground, the other guys began stomping on him and wailing on him in front of the cops… I don’t know what kind of guys they were, they looked like normal guys, normal, tall, some were heavier, some were thinner – it was a lot of people, there were a lot of guys there.
Reporter: You’re saying the situation was that the cops were holding the man down on the ground, and that in front of the cops, still in their view, other people were striking him?
Eyewitness: Lots of stomping on him one more time, kicking him, that happened… Curses were being shouted, like “Black fucker”, stuff like that.
Reporter: Have you given a statement to police about this?
Eyewitness: I haven’t, because nobody else saw me standing there watching, so no.
