What happened at the start of October 2008 in Benešov? A 15 to 20-member group of neo-Nazis attacked an 18-year-old youth who believes he was randomly selected for assault. The brutal attack caused him serious injuries with permanent consequences. After finishing with this first victim, the mob continued to frantically chase other people throughout the town. They attacked another youth and shouted racist slogans at him; he also was hospitalized as a result, although his injuries were fortunately light. He met the first victim at the hospital, who had ended up much worse off. Seriously injured victim effectively lacks information about his rights “The physical attack on the man occurred on Friday 10 October at 20:30 when a group of men aged about 20 and dressed in black-and-white camouflage, black or blue pants, and bomber jackets attacked by kicking him and striking him with collapsible nightsticks and brass knuckles. Their faces were masked with bandanas. The victim has been hospitalized with serious injuries,” police spokesperson Zuzana Stránská announced shortly after the crime occurred. The life of the primary victim of this attack was acutely endangered. In addition to bruising all over his body, he suffered serious injury to his spleen, which he eventually lost, and to his kidneys. He was hospitalized for almost three weeks and then continued to be treated as an outpatient. He had to abandon his studies and his employability has been compromised as a result of the permanent injury he has sustained. This victim was not instructed by police on how to demand compensation from the state as the victim of a violent crime – or at least, he was not instructed in such a way as to make him aware of his rights. Since the law establishes the deadline for filing such a request as one year from the date of the crime, this victim has lost the opportunity to access a minimum of CZK 100 000 (EUR 4 000) in compensation. Shortly before the second hearing, the family of the Benešov victim requested assistance from the attorney-in-fact for the victims of the arson attack in Vítkov. Unfortunately, motions for compensation should have been filed prior to the start of the trial.
The victim described the events to the local paper as follows: “I was going to visit a friend at Spoøilov at 8:30 in the evening and I walked by the cultural center near the Jewish cemetery. Near the garage below Klášterská street I noticed a band of about 20 masked people. Two girls were walking in front of me, and the group let them pass without any problem. Suddenly I had a strange feeling - I was listening to music on my MP3 player and I thought they would leave me alone as well, but I was no match for them. One of them pushed me down on the ground and the others mercilessly kicked me. They didn’t swear at me, but one of them ridiculed me when they were leaving – ‘That hurts, right?’ They just kicked me like a dog and left.” The girls mentioned in the victim’s account followed the attack from afar but did not attempt to defend the victim out of fear that the mob might attack them as well. Once the assailants had left the scene, the girls helped the victim walk to a nearby shop. Salespeople there called the ambulance that took him to the hospital. The suspects have been charged with the crimes of grievous bodily harm (five of them), attempted racially motivated grievous bodily harm (six of them), rioting (all of them), and racist violence against a group (all of them). According to the criminal code in effect at the time, they face prison sentences of between two and eight years. Those suspects for whom racist motivation cannot be proven face a maximum of three years in prison. The state prosecutor has issued the following statement: “All of the defendants met together in Benešov and subsequently decided to proceed through the town and to physically attack anyone of a different appearance, or mindset, or ethnicity, or race. They paraded through the town in two groups which closely followed one another….” The groups committed their attacks in various places.
Delays jeopardize prosecution
How is it possible that the prosecution of such a serious crime has undergone such delays? Police wanted to find the greatest possible number of suspects involved and collect sufficient evidence to charge them. This was not an easy task given that the assailants attacked under cover of darkness and were masked. In the end, some of the suspects confessed to their participation in the crime and revealed the names of the others. Last May, more than six months after the crime took place, the 12 defendants were charged. Benešov state prosecutor Stanislav Novák then requested political scientist Zdeòek Zboøil to analyze the propaganda material police found during searches of the suspects’ homes. The amount of material discovered was so enormous the expert had to travel several times from Prague to Benešov to review it all; he did not receive the information in digital form from the state prosecutor until several months later. His analysis is meant to demonstrate the defendants’ ideological motivation. Zboøil said some of the defendants were in possession of some of the most hardcore examples of Nazi propaganda, such as recordings of the neo-Nazi band Judenmord. A member of the Anti-fascist Action organization claims that in Filip Stránský’s case, police only searched his mother’s apartment even though he was not living there at the time. Police have found almost no evidence of his motivation.
Another attack, directly at the courthouse
During 2007 and 2008, the White Justice group organized military trainings to take place in outdoor settings. Police say professional soldier Lukáš Sedláèek of the unit based in Tábor taught the neo-Nazis how to properly attack “living targets”. He was recently discharged from the Czech Army as a result. Czech Defense Minister Martin Barták commented on the news last November, saying: “I personally ordered the instigation of the appropriate steps to immediately discharge him from service.” “I am one of the founders of this organization. It was founded by me, Filip Stránský and a person named Jana," the daily MF Dnes reported Sedláèek as saying during police interrogation. At the time the professional solider confessed to training about 30 people at the camps. He taught them hand-to-hand combat, with and without weapons, and how to attack both living and inanimate targets. He also trained them in techniques for setting cars on fire and destroying other kinds of property. However, Sedláèek now denies participating in the group’s activities and claims to have stopped having anything to do with neo-Nazism long ago. Police have not succeeded in demonstrating a connection between the training and the Benešov attack, even though it is more than likely the attack was actually part of the training.
This year the Organized Crime Detection Unit (Útvar pro odhalování organizovaného zloèinu - ÚOOZ) has tried to charge several neo-Nazis with the crime of terrorism over an alleged plot to kidnap police officers and politicians. The state prosecutor refused to take the case forward, allegedly for insufficient evidence. Why did the Benešov court not announce this trial to the media? Evidently out of concern for the fact that the witnesses might have begun to fear the possible results of testifying. Most of the witnesses did show up to testify without concern at the end of April. However, as a result of failing to inform the public of the degree of danger involved, another attack occurred at the courthouse. An unidentified perpetrator, evidently a supporter of neo-Nazism, was watching the courthouse during the trial. While one of the main witnesses and his attorney were inside, the perpetrator slashed their tires. It will be difficult to prove who committed the crime as police did not patrol the area in front of the courthouse. After learning of the attack, Jakub Polák, the victims’ attorney-in-fact, said: “They think they can just bully someone like that and get away with it. It makes me want to see this through even more.” In the past, Polák represented a Romani youth who died after a neo-Nazi attack in broad daylight in the center of the South Bohemian town of Písek. The youth drowned in the river after his assailants prevented him from getting out of the water. Over the course of many years of painstaking work, Polák managed to convince the state prosecutor to classify the crime not as rioting, but as racially motivated murder. Three young neo-Nazis were eventually sentenced to long prison sentences five years after the crime was committed.
Romea
