Source: romea.cz
Symbol of Antigypsyism
At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, anti-Roma activities by right-wing extremists intensified in the Czech Republic. The most shocking case was the arson attack in Vítkov in April 2009, in which a two-year-old girl, Natálie Kudriková, suffered burns over 80% of her body. The attack became a symbol of the brutality of contemporary racism. The perpetrators—four young neo-Nazi men linked to groups like the Autonomous Nationalists Bruntálsko and National Resistance Silesia—had previously taken part in anti-Roma demonstrations. Police investigations confirmed their extremist affiliations. In 2010, the Regional Court in Ostrava sentenced two of them to 22 years and two to 20 years for attempted racially motivated murder and related crimes. Images of the injured child shocked Czech society and the international public, generating widespread condemnation and pressure on authorities to prevent similar extremist acts.
„The trial court found in the aforementioned criminal proceedings that (in short) the applicants, together with two other co-defendants, in an attempt to gain visibility within extremist movements and towards society by holding a major event before the 120th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birth, threw Molotov cocktails with burning wicks into three of the four windows of a pre-selected house inhabited by a large Roma family on 18 April 2009 at around 11.45 p.m. They did all this after prior planning.“
Constitutional Court. Decision related to the case Vítkov
ECLI:CZ:US:2014:4.US.1418.12.3