Justice for Romani Victims of Racially Motivated Crimes in Slovakia
22 July 2005
According to ERRC research, on April 18, 2005 the District Court of Senica, issued judgement on a four year old case imposing two four year jail sentences and a six month suspended sentence to three skinheads, Marian Černicky, Marek Nemec and Marian Jurček, and awarding financial compensation to the victim. Mr. Daniel Milan was attacked on August 10, 2001 in the compound of a local school close to his house. The District court of Skalica on July 8, 2002 sentenced Marian Černicky to a four year jail term, Marek Nemec to a three year jail term and Marian Jurček to a six month jail term. However, upon appeal on behalf of the victim, the Regional Court of Appeal in Trnava overturned the District Court's judgement ordering the lower Court to take into account compensation claims for damages suffered. The Regional Court of Appeal also ordered the lower Court to increase the jail sentences of the attackers. Consequently, the District Court of Senica imposed a jail sentence of four years each to Marian Černicky and Marek Nemec and a six month suspended sentence to Marian Jurček. The Court also required all of them to pay a total sum of 122, 550 Slovak Crowns (approximately 3,200 Euro) to the victim. Further information on the situation of Roma in Slovakia can be found on ERRC's website www.errc.org.
On January 19, 2005, the Regional Court in Banska Bystrica delivered a binding final decision, awarding for the first time in Slovak judicial history, compensation for moral suffering to the next-of-kin of a victim of racially motivated crime. The Regional court in Banska Bystrica issued final judgement upholding the decision of the District Court in Žiar nad Hronom obliging the respondent to pay 300,000 Slovak Crowns (approximately 7,800 Euro) as satisfaction for non-pecuniary damage for the 1995 killing of a 17-year-old Romani youth named Mario Goral, in the town of Žiar nad Hronom. On July 21, 1995 Mr. Goral was chased through the streets of the town by a group of skinheads, stabbed with knives, beaten to a state of unconsciousness, doused in a flammable substance, and then set on fire. Mario Goral suffered second and third degree burns to sixty three percent of his body and died in hospital ten days later, on July 31, 1995. For more information on this case please visit the ERRC's website at http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2131 and http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=1800.
(ERRC)
