Red carpet assailant gives himself up to Czech Police and apologizes to singer, claims his protest was against the popular music awards, not against Roma

The attacker claims his action was a protest against the Czech Nightingale (Český slavík) popular music awards generally. Bendig was posing for photographers on Friday at the Forum Karlín ahead of the start of the ceremony when a man in a red jacket approached him from behind.

The man pulled a sack of flour out of a shopping bag and poured it over the head of the unsuspecting singer. The Czech Police had been investigating the case on their own initiative since Friday, and the perpetrator explained himself to them on Sunday evening.

“I can confirm that the man gave himself up to us and the detectives interrogated him on the spot. The exact legal qualification has yet to be established,” police spokesperson Richard Hrdina told news server Romea.cz on Monday, 27 November.

“I would like to apologize to Jan Bendig for what happened on Friday at the Czech Nightingale awards. It was not personal and it decidedly was not racist. I think you couldn’t have heard any abuse being spoken, I don’t know why some media are reporting that there was. I never said any such thing,” Lukáš Procházka, whom the media identified as the perpetrator, posted to Instagram.

“I came in and threw the flour because you were the first one there. It would have happened to anybody else who happened to be the first. I was there approximately 20 minutes prior to the start, but I did not expect you in particular to be the first,” the assailant explained.

“I had to, though. This is simply about disrupting Czech Nightingale in general. The security isn’t worth a fart,” the attacker said, adding that he has “nothing against Roma” and is “not a xenophobe or a Nazi”.

Procházka also refuted allegations that the entire scene had been staged as an attempt to increase publicity for the singer. Over the weekend, a video circulated online from August showing Bendig and Procházka toasting each other in a bar.

The perpetrator also confirmed that he was in that video in his Instagram post. “I do not know Jan Bendig personally, he just came into my bar once. We introduced ourselves – ‘I’m Lukáš’ – ‘I’m Honza’ – and that was all. So the video circulating on the Internet alleging that we know each other is nothing. This was about security. I just wanted to demonstrate that the security guards there aren’t worth shit,” he explained his motivation before declining an invitation from Bendig to his upcoming concert with thanks – the singer published the invitation on the day after the incident in a Facebook statement.

Bendig is rejecting allegations that he himself staged the incident for marketing purposes. He called the perpetrator a “badass” for being able to publicly admit he had made a mistake and then harshly attacked those who believe the incident was staged to aid Bendig with selling his new book and drawing people to his planned concert in the O2 Universum venue.

“Sure, I’d prefer to slap him, because in addition to messages of support, I have had to hear once again the unkind things I’ve been hearing my whole life. However, I’ve made a lot of mistakes myself in life and it’s both humane and important to give people a second chance. I accept his apology and believe he has learned his lesson. I do not see him as somebody who is stupid… he is a badass who knows how to admit his mistakes in public! The people whom I consider stupid are those who want to harm me, who wanted to turn everything into a story that I myself had staged this! Shame on you! I tell you all, once again I felt an unreal sense of powerlessness, and that’s not ok,” Bendig posted to Facebook.