Extremism

Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic
Security Policy Section
public@mvcr.cz

The Report on the Issue of Extremism in the Czech Republic in 2000

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Annex No. 11 Overview of Cases Comprising the Suspicion of Criminal Acts or Offenses having an ”Extremist Context”, Including Cases Motivated by Racial or National Intolerance, or Committed by Supporters of Extremist Groups without Regard to Their Final Criminal Classification (for the period commencing on 1 January 2000 and ending on 31 December 2000)

The overview has been prepared in cooperation with the Police Headquarters of the Czech Republic, Czech Bureau of Investigation, Office of Chief Prosecutor, and the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic.

This annex constitutes a follow-up to the overviews attached to the reports approved by Government Resolution Nos. 192/1998, 720/1999, and 684/2000, which reports contained cases registered by the Police of the Czech Republic (”PCR”) from 1 January 1996 until 30 June 1997, from 1 January 1997 until 31 December 1998, and from 1 January 1999 until 31 December 1999. The overview contains cases where there existed the suspicion of committing criminal acts or offenses with an ”extremist context”, including cases motivated by racial or national intolerance, or committed by supporters of extremist groups. The 2000 Report contains the overview of cases occurring in 2000, cases listed in the 1999 overview and updated according to the progress of investigation in 2000, and cases investigated in the year 2000 but occurring in the previous period.

The purpose of the overview is to document on particular cases the character of the so called ”extremist criminality” in its comprehensiveness, and among other things, to open a discussion about its correct definition. Simultaneously, the overview should allow the public to get the objective picture of methods on the basis of which applicable authorities solve such criminal acts within the valid system of law.

Databases of the Police Headquarters of the Czech Republic, which are based on reporting commitment and contain individual cases registered by the Czech Police in 2000, were used for the preparation of the overview. In the overview, such cases are divided into crimes, offenses (offenses which remain under investigation by the Czech Police, and offenses referred to municipal authorities for their resolution), and cases where the commission of criminal acts has not been proven.

The presented overview includes cases with an ”extremist context” registered by the Czech Police in the Czech Republic in 2000, and introduces ”cases with an extremist context” which were dealt by the Czech Police within the period from 1 January 2000 until 31 December 2000 regardless of their final criminal classification, which information is incomparable with statistical data of the official criminal statistics which, on the contrary, contains only such acts, which, after investigation, have been finally classified by the Czech Police as criminal.

The overview has been completed in cooperation with the Police Headquarters of the Czech Republic, Czech Bureau of Investigation, the Office of Chief Prosecutor, and the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic.

Criminal activities within the sphere of spectators’ violence and sprayers’ acts without ”extremist context” have not been included herein.

In 2000, the Czech Police registered a total of 469 cases with an ”extremist context” in the territory of the Czech Republic, which means an increase by 20 cases compared with 1999. The above mentioned total number includes 373 criminal acts, 43 offenses to be considered by municipal authorities, and 13 cases where criminal activities have not been proven, i.e., mostly acts which never happen and have been fabricated by informers. We should add that the above mentioned registration includes also closed cases (39 criminal acts, 5 cases reclassified as offenses) which occurred before the year 2000 but were solved in 2000.

The largest number of criminal acts was registered in the Capital City of Prague (84), followed by the South Moravian Region (74), and the North Moravian Region (58). The lowest number of criminal acts (17) was registered in the South Bohemian Region. In respect of offenses, the largest number was registered in the North Moravian Region (26), the second largest in the Capital City of Prague (16), and the lowest number was registered in the South Moravian Region (2).

Composition of offenders committing criminal acts with an ”extremist context”

The total number of registered offenders committing criminal acts with an ”extremist context” in 2000 equaled app. 608, of which app. 121 were designated as unknown offenders, and 88 offenders were designated by the Czech Police as supporters of the skinhead movement, and 399 were other citizens without evident signs of being supporters of the right-wing extremist spectrum.

Verbal assaults

A total of 132 offenders committed verbal assaults.

112 Czech citizens assaulted another Czech person, of which 104 individuals (85 men, 19 women) without evident signs of being supporters of the right-wing extremist spectrum, and 8 were supporters of the skinhead movement.

In addition, 8 offenders (Czech citizens) assaulted foreign citizens, and 8 foreigners assaulted Czech citizens. 4 offenders remain unknown.

Physical assaults

A total of app. 335 offenders committed physical assaults.

218 Czech citizens assaulted another Czech person, of which 150 individuals (141 men, 9 women) without evident signs of being supporters of the right-wing extremist spectrum, and 68 were supporters of the skinhead movement.

8 foreigners, supporters of the skinhead movement, assaulted Czech citizens.

In addition, 5 Czech citizens without evident signs of being supporters of the right-wing extremist spectrum, 3 supporters of the skinhead movement (Czech citizens), 1 foreigner without evident signs of being a supporter of the right-wing extremist spectrum, and 1 foreigner, a supporter of the skinhead movement, assaulted persons of different nationality.

The total number of unknown assailants (Czech citizens) equaled 99. It is not possible to provide such number with absolute accuracy since in the Capital City of Prague and Central Bohemian Region there were 4 cases of assaults by ”a group of unknown assailants – supporters of the skinhead movement” (for work purposes, we suppose that each such group comprised 5 assailants). From among the above mentioned unknown offenders, 21 were unambiguously designated as supporters of the skinhead movement. All such assaults committed by unknown offenders were aimed against Czech citizens.

Sprayers, and others.

11 in 18 sprayers were unknown offenders. In addition to the above mentioned sprayers, 16 persons were designated as offenders promoting movements aiming at the suppression of civil rights and freedoms otherwise than by spraying.

Promotion of movements aiming at the suppression of civil rights and freedoms by means of CD’s

In comparison with 1999, when such activity was never dealt with by the Czech Police, in 2000 the police registered 24 offenders – foreign citizens (20 men, 4 women, mostly citizens of the Vietnamese Socialistic Republic) who were selling CD’s containing records promoting racial, national, and other hatred.

Verbal promotion of movements aiming at the suppression of civil rights and freedoms

A total of 82 offenders verbally promoted movements aiming at the suppression of civil rights and freedoms, of which 72 were Czech citizens (71 men, 1 woman), 3 foreigners, and two unknown offenders who were not designated by the Czech Police as supporters of the right-wing extremist spectrum. 5 supporters of the skinhead movement verbally promoted movements aiming at the suppression of civil rights and freedoms (1 Czech citizen and 3 foreigners).

Labels and other symbols of movements aiming at the suppression of civil rights and freedoms

Labels and other symbols of movements aiming at the suppression of civil rights and freedoms were found with 32 offenders, of which 28 were Czech citizens (26 men, 2 women) who were not designated by the Czech Police as supporters of the right-wing extremist spectrum, and 4 supporters of the skinhead movement.

Criminal activities committed through the use of printed materials

11 offenders performed criminal activities using printed materials, of which 10 were Czech citizens (9 men, 1 woman) and 1 was an unknown offender. From among the above mentioned 11 offenders 1 was a supporter of the left-wing extremist spectrum and 10 were supporters of the right-wing extremist spectrum.