E/CN.4/2000/16/Add.1 page 7 (a) In September 1993, in the town of P’isek in southern Bohemia, a group of skinheads pushed four Roma into the River Otava, then stood on the bank and threw stones at them to prevent them landing on the shore; one of the Roma, Tibor Danihel (aged 18) drowned. There were numerous irregularities in the inquiry into this incident. To begin with, of the 19 skinheads accused, only 4 were sentenced, but only for voluntary manslaughter. An application for judicial review brought the case back to the courts and in 1998 the principal aggressors were tried for racist murder. In January 1999, the High Court set aside the judgement for formal procedural reasons. The Minister of Justice filed an application for judicial review of this decision by the High Court; on 27 May 1999, the Supreme Court referred the case to the High Court to rule on the appeal. In its effective ruling of 30 June 1999, the High Court in Prague extended the sentence originally imposed on defendant Chumacek to 8 years and 8 months of imprisonment; on defendant Pomyje to 6 years and 6 months; and rejected defendant Halich’s appeal against the length of his prison sentence; (b) In October 1993, in Radek nad Nisou (northern Bohemia), Milan Holub (aged 21) was shot dead during a fight with two men, one of them a skinhead. The two men reportedly provoked the fight by making the Nazi salute. The young Rom then punched one in the face, whereupon the latter fired. The court released the gunman in 1995 on grounds of self-defence. The High Court rejected the appeals by the representative of the State in a decision of 13 August 1997; (c) In May 1995, Tibor Berki (aged 42) died during a skinhead attack in Zdar nad Sazavou (eastern Bohemia); his attacker was sentenced for murder. This murder led to a reversal of public opinion concerning racist acts and was behind government measures to combat them. 21. In 1998, official statistics indicated that 133 racially-motivated crimes had taken place and that 184 persons had been sentenced. These crimes include both physical and verbal attacks and incitement to racial hatred. The following cases may serve as illustrations: (a) On 15 February 1998, in Vrchlabi (eastern Bohemia), two skinheads threw Helena Biháriova (aged 26) into the Elbe. She was drowned despite the assistance of a journalist who jumped into the river to save her. On 29 September 1998, one of the accused was sentenced to eight and a half years and the other to six and half years’ imprisonment, not for a racist crime but for blackmail resulting in death; (b) In May 1998, three Roma were attacked by a group of skinheads in Orlová (northern Moravia). One of them was kicked unconscious and left lying on the road where he was run over by a car. The court of the district of Karviná only gave the perpetrators suspended sentences for attempted violence leading to incapacity for work; (c) On 17 May, in Karviná, a Rom named Milan Lacko was attacked and beaten by four skinheads who left him for dead on the road. He was run over by a lorry and died of his injuries on 26 October 1998. 22. Several of the persons to whom the Special Rapporteur spoke maintained that racist crimes were not punished as they should be, with the result that many racist crimes were not reported to the police because the victims had no confidence in the justice system.