Extremists march through Svitavy

Svitavy, East Bohemia, July 21 (CTK) - Some 130 Czech ultra-right extremists participated in a march in memory of imprisoned skinhead Vlastimil Pechanec, who was convicted of a racially-motivated murder of a Romany man, in Svitavy Saturday.

Tens of policemen, including a riot unit of the South Moravia Region's police, monitored the march.

Extremists were marching from the local railway station to the main square where they read Pechanec's letter from prison.

They carried banners promoting freedom for Pechanec and chanted slogans. Then they returned to the railway station again where the march ended.

"Police will keep monitoring the situation until the participants in the march depart," local police spokeswoman Anna Stegnerova said.

Ultra-right radicals have been meeting in Svitavy over the Pechanec case for a couple of years.

Last year, some 150 radicals took part in a similar protest meeting.

Pechanec was found guilty of having stabbed a Romany man to death at a disco in Svitavy in July 2001.

He originally received a 13-year prison sentence for the murder, but the court of appeals increased it to 17 years, qualifying the murder as racially-motivated.

Pechanec pleads not guilty. He says his trial was framed up and the evidence fabricated.

He was previously convicted of violent crimes, breach of the peace and support and promotion of movements aimed to suppress human rights and freedoms.