Prague, Nov 9 (CTK) – Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka condemned a assault on a black man from West Africa by a group of Czech fans of the Sigma Olomouc football club in Prague, calling the Saturday racist incident “shameful and absolutely unacceptable” on Twitter on Thursday.
“I believe that the attack will be properly investigated and the attackers adequately punished,” Sobotka tweeted.
The Aktualne.cz news site wrote on Thursday that the police arrested the fans of the Czech top league club who verbally and later physically attacked the 36-year man on a tram in Prague centre.
The fans assaulted the man, who has been living in Prague for ten years, over the colour of his skin. He had to be treated in hospital, the server writes.
At first, they were attacking him verbally, throwing lemons at him. They eventually beat him with fists, pushed him to the ground and kicked him. The attacked man complains that nobody from the tram helped him and he had to use the emergency button and ask its driver to call in the emergency staff and police.
After he was treated in hospital, the police drove him to a local police station where they showed him video recordings of the fans from the match that was being held.
The man said “I recognised about seven of them and the police detained them during the match.”
He said most of the passengers in the tram had refused his plea for testimony.
“All the detained men ended up at the police station. Now detectives are working on the case over the suspicion of defamation of race, breach of the peace and bodily harm,” police spokesman Jan Danek said.
The football club SK Sigma Olomouc has distanced itself from the behaviour of the assailants. Its representatives said they only had information on the event from the media.
“Still, we sharply denounce such a conduct. We do not consider the individuals who are guilty of this any fans of SK Sigma Olomouc and they are not welcomed at our stadium. Those behaving so are not fans of SK Sigma!” the club said in its press release, adding that it was ready to cooperate with the police.
