Update: 05/02/2024 15:35
Issued by: 05/02/2024, 15:01
Karviná – Jaromír Lukeš, sentenced to an exceptional sentence of 22 years for a racially motivated arson attack on a Roma family in Vítkov in 2009, applied for parole. He spent over 15 years in prison. This was confirmed to ČTK today by the spokeswoman of the Karviná District Court, Lucie Blahutová. Lukeš is in the Karvina prison, so his application will be heard by the local court on May 28. Of the four men convicted of attacking a Roma family, two were paroled from prison last year. Lukeš and David Vaculík remain serving their sentences.
“I can confirm that the convict has applied for parole. The court will deal with it on May 28. The hearing will be public,” said Blahutová. She added that the prison management responded positively to the request.
A group of sympathizers of the extreme right attacked house number 58 on the outskirts of Vítkovo in the Opava region shortly before midnight on April 18-19, 2009. Three masked perpetrators each threw an incendiary bottle filled with gasoline into the windows of the ground-floor building. The arsonists then drove away in a car in which their accomplice was waiting. A massive fire started by the perpetrators almost took the life of a little girl who was not even two years old at the time and injured her mother and father.
Eight people were in the house at the time of the attack. Little Natálka suffered the worst, suffering burns on almost 80 percent of her body. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition, from which the doctors released her only after eight months. The girl lost three fingers and has other life-long consequences, repeatedly having to undergo operations. The girl’s mother Anna Siváková and her partner Pavel Kudrik escaped from the burning house with less serious injuries.
Last May, the Šumper District Court conditionally released the first two convicts, Václav Cojocara and Ivo Müller, who had served two-thirds of their sentences for attempted multiple racially motivated murders. Natálka’s mother, Anna Siváková, was shocked by last year’s much-watched decision of the Šumper court.
