Attacker from Radotín who stabbed foreigner sentenced to 15 years. Court confirms racial motive
Prague's Higher Court has toughened the sentence in the case of an assault on a foreigner in Radotín. A thirty-one-year-old man has received fifteen years in prison for attempted murder with intent.
Attacker from Radotín who stabbed foreigner sentenced to 15 years. Court confirms racial motive
Prague's Higher Court on Tuesday confirmed a fifteen-year sentence for Petr Zemánek. The thirty-year-old repeat offender assaulted a man with a knife in Radotín last March, whom he believed to be Ukrainian. The verdict is final.
The original panel of the municipal court had imposed a twelve-year sentence for attempted simple murder. However, the state prosecutor appealed, arguing that the court had underestimated the racial context of the attack. The appeals court agreed with her and reclassified the act as attempted murder with intent.
Everything began outside a local shop. Zemánek was consuming alcohol when he heard two men speaking in a foreign language. He believed it was Ukrainian and began to insult them harshly. He shouted that "all Ukrainians should be killed" and subsequently spat at one of them. After a brief interval, he returned armed with a knife.
The victims had meanwhile left for the railway station. Zemánek tracked them down and continued the aggression. He verbally attacked them, then kicked one of the men and punched the other. Then he drew a blade and thrust it into the chest of one of them. The injured man was saved by immediate medical care at the hospital.
During the main trial, the defendant claimed he was heavily intoxicated and acted in self-defence. The court did not accept these arguments. The municipal court originally rejected the national motive, but the appeals court determined that the attack was targeted specifically because of the suspected national affiliation of the victim.
In addition to attempted murder, Zemánek was found guilty of disorderly conduct and expressions of sympathy for an extremist movement. He must pay the injured party nearly 300,000 crowns as compensation for damages.
Source: Novinky.cz
Source: Novinky.cz