News server Aktuálně.cz has published new information about the perpetrators of racially motivated violent crimes who have now been released from their sentences as a result of the Czech President’s amnesty. As we previously reported (http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/czech-prisoner-amnesty-releases-racist-assailants-and-extremists), the infamous rowdies from Nýrsko, Boublík and Miškovič, have been released. Last year they first attacked a small group of children for no reason and then broke into a nearby home which they knew was occupied by a Romani family, where they tried to strangle a male family member using a sweatshirt.
Miroslav Vojáček, an independent candidate who ran on the ticket of the ultra-right Workers’ Social Justice Party (DSSS) during elections to the Czech lower house in 2010, also need fear prison no more. At the start of last year, Vojáček assaulted a citizen of Morocco in the Central Bohemian town of Rožmitál. He was given a one-year prison sentence, suspended for three years’ probation.
"Our client was physically assaulted for no reason, without any preceding conflict, after he bought cigarettes in a restaurant and started walking home. The assailant attacked him from behind and struck him on the face and head, fracturing his nose. Treatment of his injures took two weeks," the In IUSTITIA organization, which represented the Moroccan citizen before the courts, described the incident. While the case has not yet been reviewed by the District Court in Příbram, Vojáček’s probation is expected to be lifted during the next few weeks as per the terms of the amnesty.
Among those who have been "redeemed" and suddenly set free are perpetrators of violence against people of a different skin color and the adherents to and promoters of movements aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms. "The perception of the amnesty among members of the neo-Nazi scene nicely reflects their ambivalence between their own delinquency and ‘calls for order’. Some of them are glad because they are no longer on probation or they have been released, while others are screaming over the fact that delinquents are being set free – sometimes guys who have barely served any time," Jana Součková, a spokesperson for the Anti-Fascist Action organization, commented to news server Aktuálně.cz.
The amnesty is allowing many adherents of the Czech ultra-right back onto the streets with clean slates. Not only are some of them no longer on probation, but their criminal records may even be erased – and not only for those in the DSSS leadership, such as party chair Tomáš Vandas, who is now no longer on probation as result of the president’s gift.
White (In)justice
One amnestied convict, a fan of the neo-Nazi White Justice movement named Jaromír Kadeřábek, has now had his six-month suspended sentence and three years of probation annulled by a court on Tábor. The sentence was handed down for promoting the movement, which attracted media interest in connection with its organization of military training camps and its project "Redwatch", which gathered data on persons unfriendly to the neo-Nazis.
Other convicts in the case received longer sentences and are not covered by the terms of the amnesty; only one has served his community service sentence to date.
Amnesty for a Holocaust denier
Czech-Canadian Vladimír Stwora will also join the other amnestied convicts soon. Stwora was convicted of posting a Czech translation of an article denying the Holocaust on his website. A judge sentenced him to six months in prison, suspended for two years’ probation.
Jan Svoják will also be able to breathe easy from now on. As a student in his third year of high school he was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years’ probation, for posting the symbol of a Nazi SS unit on his online profile, according to Deník.cz.
Relief for the DSSS
In addition to amnesties for the DSSS party leadership (chair Tomáš Vandas, vice-chair Jiří Štěpánek, members Petr Kotáb and Martin Zbela) who were convicted for the content of speeches they gave at a 1 May demonstration in 2009, the court has also annulled the sentences of other DSSS members. Lucie Šlégrová (six months suspended for one year’s probation), her brother Jiří (seven months suspended for two years’ probation) and David Kundl (six months suspended for one year’s probation) were convicted last July by the District Court for Prague 3 of holding banners with banned symbols and for promoting the Workers’ Party, the predecessor to the DSSS.
According to Michal Princ of the Prague 3 District Court, the amnesty applies to these three convicts. The DSSS has therefore scored yet another "win" in its battle with the Czech justice system thanks to President Klaus.
Anti-Fascist Action spokesperson Součková also points out yet another "group" of neo-Nazis also covered by the amnesty: Those convicted of other offenses not related to their ideology.
"The vast majority of the members of the neo-Nazi scene don’t make it into prison for political activity (however defined – and I include assaulting someone because of their skin color in this category) but for drunken violence, knife fights, violent robberies, burglaries, and scams. When political torts (promotion and support of movements aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms) figure in their convictions, they usually do so alongside other felonies, such as violating probation," Součková said.
