Yesterday a court in Most had to suspend its hearing into an attack on Czech human rights activist Ondøej Cakl by several neo-Nazis. The attack was committed on 17 November 2008 during an attempted pogrom against Roma residents of the Janov housing estate in the town of Litvínov. František Brávek, a 27-year-old neo-Nazi, has been charged as one of the attackers who brutally beat Cakl and destroyed his video camera. A verdict was not handed down today due to a power failure at the courthouse. On 5 January, the court acquitted another suspected assailant, Martin Loskot, of related charges. Several minutes after the trial commenced, the lights went out in the courtroom; after 10 minutes of interruption, the power could not be restored. "We had to halt the trial for technical reasons. The lights in the courtroom were gradually turning off and then there was no power at all," Judge Benno Eichler said. The trial has been postponed until May.
The judge only managed to hear testimony from Ondøej Cakl today. "While I was filming the crowd of 800, someone suddenly grabbed me from behind and slid down with me so that I flew sideways, and then all I could see were parts of the arms and legs that were striking me. I covered my head and did my best to get away. Luckily I succeeded," Cakl told the court. "Based on my memory of the scene of the crime, I am not able to identify the defendant as one of the attackers, but I am able to identify him on the basis of the photographs and video recordings made by the journalists who were present." "When I discovered that those who perpetrated the attack on Natálka had been captured on film standing next to the defendant during the march on Janov, I became concerned that they might commit a Molotov cocktail attack on our office or on my apartment . I concluded police would not be able to protect me, so I left the country," Cakl told the court.
Brávek, who is charged with rioting and could face a two-year sentence, refused to testify, referring the court to the statements he made in the preliminary hearing. After the trial was postponed, he told journalists he had not attacked Cakl, although he did admit to participating in the neo-Nazi march. "I participated in the march, but I was in the crowd. I did not see the incident described here until footage of it was released on the internet," Brávek said in response to journalists' questions. "The court should concern itself with more serious matters. That camera may have cost CZK 30 000 at the time, but today it probably only costs CZK 5 000," he added, trivializing the entire case.
Another defendant, Martin Loskot, was acquitted of all charges in the case by the court on 5 January. Loskot refused to testify in Brávek's case. Klára Kalibová, Cakl's attorney, has commissioned experts in biomechanics and biometrics to produce a professional evaluation of the evidence for the next phase of the trial. "This is a technical tool that facilitates the identification of those who perpetrate crimes," Kalibová told Czech Television. Petr Pánek of the state prosecutor's office in Most has confirmed that such evidence has not yet been considered. "However, it may be considered on appeal," he said.
Jiøí Straus, an expert witness in the field of biomechanics, says an attack of this sort cannot be ruled on without an expert evaluation. Experts are able to use visual images of an incident to precisely identify assailants. "A person's movements are relative and can be analyzed in very brief intervals to determine who was kicking and with what intensity," Straus told Czech Television.
Romea
