Source: blesk.cz
Martyr of the neo-Nazi movement
The case of Bohemia Hammerskins sympathizer Vlastimil Pechanec exemplifies how deeply neo-Nazi tendencies were embedded in the racist skinhead subculture of the Czech Republic. In July 2001, Pechanec was convicted of the racially motivated murder of Oto Absolon, a local Roma man in Svitavy, whom he fatally stabbed. He received a 17‑year prison sentence but was released in 2014. Throughout his imprisonment and afterwards, Pechanec consistently denied responsibility. His case became a rallying point for far‑right activists. In 2014, Tomio Okamura—then chairman of the Dawn (Úsvit) movement—visited him in prison, a gesture that underscored the political resonance of his case. Following his release, Pechanec sought to reopen his trial, but the Constitutional Court rejected his appeal in 2016. He subsequently re‑entered the right‑wing extremist scene, where he continued to serve as a symbol for militant networks.
„On 20 July 2001 at around 11:30 p.m. in Svitavy at the National House Hotel during a disco in the bar area, in a drunken state, after he had rudely expelled a group of Roma from the disco using the words “what do you want here, you black pigs”, he then physically attacked Pavel K. (a pseudonym) from the group due to racial intolerance, first by pushing him in the shoulder and then stabbing him twice in the abdomen with a knife and once in the forearm of the right hand with which the injured party was protecting his abdomen, thereby causing a perforation in the colon and a stab wound to the inferior vena cava and abdominal aorta, i.e. an injury so severe in terms of its general nature and multiplicity that the injured party’s death was not preventable even despite the provision of immediate qualified medical assistance. The wounded party died as a result of this injury on 21 July 2001 in a hospital in Svitavy.“
Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic (2016)
Usnesení II.ÚS 1536/16 from 14 June 2016, ECLI:CZ:US:2016:2.US.1536.16.1
Further Reading / Sources
Mixed Quality Judical Action on Race Crimes in the Czech Republic
European Roma Rights Centre (2003)
Pravicový extremismus a radikalismus v České republice
Mareš, Miroslav (2003), Brno: Barrister & Principal, Centrum strategických studií