Police finds racial motive in central Bohemian arson attack

Monday’s arson attack against a Romany house in the central Bohemian town of Býchory was racially motivated, a police spokeswoman said on Wednesday. However, only one of the four suspects will face charges of a racially motivated attack and could land up to 12 years in prison. The prosecutor on Wednesday re-qualified the charges for the other three suspects who are now accused of less severe crime and face between six months and three years in jail.

The suspects were arrested shortly after the attack which took place in the central Bohemian town of Býchory in the early hours of Monday. The men allegedly threw a lit torch into a house inhabited by Romanies; no one was hurt in the incident. However, a similar attack in northern Moravia in 2009 gravely injured a two-year-old girl.