The overview was prepared in cooperation with the Police Headquarters of the Czech Republic, the Czech Bureau of Investigation, and the Office of Chief Prosecutor.
This Attachment is a follow-up to the overviews attached to the reports approved by the Government Resolution Nos. 192/1998 and 720/1999 which contained cases registered by the Police of the Czech Republic (hereinafter, the "PČR") from 1 January 1996 until 30 June 1997, and from 1 January 1997 until 31 December 1998. The overview contains cases suspected of having extremist context, or cases suspected of being motivated by membership in extremist groups. The Report for 1999 contains the overview of cases for the year 1999, cases listed in the overview for 1998 supplemented by investigations in 1999, and cases investigated in the year 1999 but occurring earlier.
The purpose of the overview is to document on particular cases the character of extremist criminality in its comprehensiveness, and among other things, to open a discussion about its right definition. Simultaneously, the overview should allow the public to size up an objective picture of the way by which applicable authorities solve such criminal acts within the valid system of law.
The overview, among others, includes also cases of spectators' violence suspected of promoting the movements aiming at suppression of civil rights and freedoms, or suspected of other acts with extremist context, or acts committed by supporters of extremist groups.
Databases of the Directorate of Criminal Police, which are based on the reporting obligation and contain individual cases registered by the Czech Police in 1999, were used for preparation of the overview. In the overview, these cases are divided into crimes, offences (offences which remain under investigation by the Czech Police, and offences referred to municipal authorities for their resolution), and cases where criminal acts have not been proven. The cases, which according to their character represent crimes, provided that such cases have not been closed, suspended, reclassified as offences, or provided that they have not remained under investigation by the Czech Police, or the suspicion of criminal act has not been proven, have been supplemented by data of the Czech Bureau of Investigation and data on the status of court proceedings according to the data obtained from the Office of the Chief Prosecutor and Ministry of Justice.
The presented overview includes cases with extremist context registered in the Czech Republic in 1999, and provides an outline of cases with extremist context which were dealt by the Czech Police (databases of the Czech Police include lists of "summary events" regardless of their final criminal classification), and therefore the overview cannot be compared with the official data of criminal statistics which, on the other hand, contain only acts, which after investigation, were finally classified as criminal by the Czech Police. The databases of the Czech Police and the Czech Bureau of Investigation were closed as at 31 January 2000, and therefore they do not reflect any changes which may have occurred after that date. The Ministry of Justice have supplemented the databases by data on the status of court proceedings as at 31 May 2000. The overview has been supplemented by a table and five diagrams.
In 1999, the Czech Police registered the total of 449 cases with extremist context in the territory of the Czech Republic, which is an increase by 138 compared with 1998 (316). Out of such number, 374 were criminal acts (264 in 1998), 68 were offences (39 in 1998), and criminal activity could not been proven in 9 cases. The largest number of criminal acts was registered in the Capital City of Prague (108), South Moravian Region (52) and North Moravian Region (51); the lowest incidence (21) was recorded in the Central Bohemian Region. The largest number of offences was registered in the Capital City of Prague (28), North Moravian Region (13), and North Bohemian Region (12). The largest number of cases where criminal activity could not be proven occurred in the Central Bohemian Region, and no such case occurred in South Bohemian, West Bohemian, East Bohemian, and North Bohemian Regions. See Table 1: Cases with Extremist Context Registered in the Czech Republic from 1996 until 1999 (regardless of their final criminal classification).
71.2% of the cases with extremist context (455) were committed by supporters of a right-wing extremist spectrum (10.2% of the cases constituted of spraying the symbols of right-wing extremism on buildings, etc.). Supporters of a left-wing spectrum committed 2.2% of the cases; 6.2% of the cases were situational conflicts (expressions of latent social tension), 12.1% of the cases involved minority xenophobia (in 8.4% of all cases Romanies constituted offenders), and hooligans acted in 6.2% cases. The number of mutual conflicts between skinheads and anarchist autonoms (0.73%), and skinheads and Romanies (0.36%) was not significant.
In 1999, 132 cases were registered in the Capital City of Prague (40 in 1998). Most of these occurred in the District of Prague 5 (22), in 1998 (0); the second largest number of cases was registered in the District of Prague 1 (18), in 1998 (11), and in the District of Prague 3 (18), in 1998 (8). In assessing the situation in the Capital City of Prague, the City's specific features, including its position of a large city, need to be taken into account. Other locations in the Czech Republic with two or more cases with extremist context registered in 1999 include the following cities and towns in Central Bohemian Region: Kladno (6), Rakovník (4), Kutná Hora (3), Příbram (3), Mělník (2), and Mladá Boleslav (2) - in 1998 Kladno (6) and Kutná Hora (3); in South Bohemian Region: České Budějovice (9), Písek (8), Tábor (7), Český Krumlov (3), Pelhřimov (2), and Strakonice (2) - in 1998 Písek (12), České Budějovice (5), Český Krumlov (3), and Tábor (2); in West Bohemian Region: Plzeň (22), Karlovy Vary (2), and Tachov (2) - in 1998 Plzeň (14); in North Bohemian Region: Most (17), Ústí n/Labem (9), Teplice (7), Litoměřice (6), Česká Lípa (4), Jablonec n/Nisou (4), Děčín (3), Chomutov (2), and Liberec (2) - in 1998 Litoměřice (7), Ústí n/Labem (6), Most (3), Děčín, Teplice, Liberec, Česká Lípa, Chomutov (two each); in the East Bohemian Region: Trutnov (10), Havlíčkův Brod (6), Hradec Králové (6), Náchod (6), Pardubice (5), Ústí nad Orlicí (3), Jičín (2), and Rychnov nad Kněžnou (2) - in 1998 Trutnov (14), and Dvůr Králové nad Labem (3); in South-Moravian Region: Brno (22), Zlín (12), Prostějov (6), Břeclav (4), Blansko (3), Hodonín (2), Jihlava (2), Vyškov (2), and Žďár nad Sázavou (2) - in 1998 Brno (22), Zlín (9), Blansko (4), Třebíč (4), Prostějov (3), Hustopeče (2); in North Moravian Region: Karviná (15), Ostrava (12), Opava (9), Bruntál (8), Jeseník (6), Přerov (6), Nový Jičín (6), and Olomouc (2) - in 1998 Ostrava (13), Opava (5), Olomouc (4), Karviná (4), Frýdek-Místek (3), Jeseník (3), Přerov (2), and Šumperk (2). Such analysis of the database of cases registered in the Czech Republic in the period from 1996 until 1999 shows that during the last three years cases with extremist context have repeatedly occurred in the Capital City of Prague, Kladno, Písek, České Budějovice, Plzeň, Trutnov, Brno, Krnov, Ostrava and Olomouc.
Graph No. 4 shows a comparison of the number of cases registered by the Czech Police in individual regions of the Czech Republic during the years 1998 and 1999; and Graph No. 5 shows the monthly development of the number of criminal acts and offences committed during the years 1998 and 1999.
Graph No. 3 shows resolutions issued in respect of criminal acts with extremist context committed in 1999.
Out of the total number of 374 criminal acts registered in the Czech Republic in 1999, 3% were discontinued as at 31 May 2000 (4% in 1998), 8% were suspended (3% in 1998), 32% were closed by motion to bring charges (10% in 1998), 30% remain under investigation (15% in 1998), 4% are under legal proceedings (28% in 1998), 13% have already been sentenced (27% in 1998). In 1998, 3% of the cases were discontinued due to amnesty; no such case occurred in 1999.
The most often used classification in resolving the criminal acts with extremist context in 1999 was the classification according to Sections 261, 202, 198 and 196 of the Criminal Code (in 1998, the most often used classification was the classification according to Sections 202, 196, 198, and 261 of the Criminal Code). The classification according to Section 202 of the Criminal Code occurred concurrently with some other criminal acts. In 1999, as compared to 1998, the classification of the character of the case according to Section 262 of the Criminal Code was used with increasing tendency. The number of applied classifications of character of cases does not conform with the number of registered cases.
In majority of the sentenced cases offenders were passed a sentence with suspension (64% in 1999, 72% in 1998). A sentence without suspension was passed in 1999 in 15% of cases, as compared with 16% of the cases in 1998. 2% of the offenders were charged with a financial penalty ranging from CZK 5,000 up to CZK 30,000, and 11% of the offenders were ordered to perform public works in 1999 (8 up to 400 hours), as compared with 5.7% in 1998 (80 up to 400 hours). Forfeiture of property was inflicted in 2% of the cases, expulsion in one case, psychiatric treatment in one case, and protective education in one case.