Dawn party leader visits man jailed for Roma murder

The head of the Dawn party, MP Tomio Okamura, on Friday visited Vlastimil Pechanec who is serving a 17-year-jail term for a racially-motivated murder of a Romany man. Mr Okamura said he wanted to hear Pechanec’ account of the events; he said the 2003 trial against Pechanec had been manipulated, and would like to have the case reopened. In a reaction, former state attorney who oversaw the case, Renáta Vesecká said Mr Okamura’s claims were “ridiculous”.

Vlastimil Pechanec was sentenced to 17 years in prison after he was found guilty of stabbing a Romany man to death at a disco in Svitavy in 2001. He later told the court he was a “supporter of the white race”, and wanted the country to be free of Roma and black people.