Court punishes two skinheads for brutal attacks

Ceske Noviny/October 12, 2006

Ostrava -- The court today imposed prison sentences of 18 and 22 months on two young men for attacking and brutally beating several people during the skinhead raging in Ostrava last year.

Another young man and a girl who is aged under 18 have been acquitted over the lack of evidence, which made the judge sharply criticise the police work.

"This is what my mind boggles at," said the judge, adding that the police investigator had applied quite subjective criteria when evaluating the pieces of evidence.

"If the investigator knew the penal code, justice could have been achieved now. The verdict could have been entirely different," the judge said.

She said that the participation in the violent action has been clearly proved in the case of Ivan Bogdan, who also uttered Nazi slogans and salutes during the attack.

He received the higher sentence for his Nazi-style utterances and for behaving so a mere three months after he was released from prison.

Milan Honkys will spend 18 months in prisons. Benedikt Vacha escaped punishment, as did the juvenile girl.

The four accused, along with a number of accomplices who have never been caught, drank alcohol in an Ostrava pub in mid-November last year. After 22:00 they set off for downtown Ostrava, gradually attacking seven passers-by.