“In April, two Romani women, aged 27 and 38, from Přeštice in the Plzeň region verbally assaulted and brutally attacked a young Bulgarian woman, mistakenly believing her to be Ukrainian. They uttered the words, ‘Return to Ukraine; we won’t support you here.’ One of the assailants has already received a suspended sentence, while the other awaits a final verdict.
The older assailant was sentenced to a ten-month prison term, suspended for two years, by the Plzeň-South District Court for attempted bodily harm and rioting, as determined by a criminal order. The same sentence was imposed on the second defendant, although her decision remains pending.
The incident unfolded at a playground near the Preštice shipyard along the Úhlava River near the town center. Following a prior verbal altercation, the accused forcibly threw the victim to the ground, where they repeatedly struck her head with their hands and kicked her. One of the assailants even yanked a lock of hair from the victim’s head, as stated in the verdict by Judge Jiří Žižka.
The judge observed that the accused were well aware that the intensity of the attack, the frequency of blows, and their targeted areas could result in severe bodily harm.
During the altercation, at least six adults and four children witnessed the incident, with one individual needing to intervene to separate the combatants.
Police officers later arrived to de-escalate the situation but faced verbal abuse from the two women. The aggressors accused the officers of bias and failing to protect their own people, even threatening to set the police station on fire.
The Bulgarian victim, a resident of the Czech Republic for over a decade, was taken aback by the assailants’ reaction. She recounted being called derogatory names, including “scum” and “slut,” and was told to return to Ukraine despite her efforts to clarify her nationality.
The altercation began when their children had a dispute on a slide. She attempted to resolve the matter and was met with hostility, with the assailants insisting she was from Ukraine.
An eyewitness, Michal T., affirmed the brutality of the attack, explaining that it followed verbal insults arising from the mistaken belief that the victim was Ukrainian. He described the situation as unusually violent.
Fortunately, a young boy exercising on the playground intervened, separating the attackers from the foreign woman in a timely manner. Police officers later arrived and managed to restrain the aggressors, enduring insults in the process.
After verifying their identities and recording witness statements, the police left the two women at the scene. Michal T. concluded by noting that he had not seen the women in the area since the incident.”
Source: novinky.cz
