Defendant shouted “Ukrainians, go home!”, gave the Nazi salute, and stabbed a Belarusian man – now he tells a Czech court it was just a “run-of-the-mill, drunken conflict”

Petr Zemánek, who faces attempted murder charges for stabbing a Belarusian man in Prague this spring, admitted to the assault at the Prague Municipal Court on Wednesday. However, he denied attacking the man because of his presumed nationality. According to the indictment, Zemánek assaulted the man because he thought he was Ukrainian. He told the court he regretted the conflict. The 40-year-old faces a sentence of 15 to 20 years in prison for attempted murder motivated by prejudice against a nation. The main trial is scheduled for next week. According to the indictment, Zemánek attacked two men – one from Ukraine, the other from Belarus – in front of a grocery store in the Radotín neighborhood of Prague in March this year. He was acting under the influence of alcohol. According to prosecutor Simona Krupová, Zemánek overheard the men speaking Russian and thought that it was Ukrainian. According to Krupová, he spat at one of the men and then started swearing at them, including saying “Fucking Ukrainians, what are you doing here, go back to Ukraine.” According to the indictment, when the men asked Zemánek if he was a nationalist or a racist, he began to give the Nazi salute and shout Nazi slogans, then punched the Belarusian twice. He reportedly then said “Yeah, I’ll kill you, I’m getting my knife and my gun” and went to his unit in the residential hotel, which was in the same building as the grocery store. (…) The men had allegedly filmed the defendant, but he was unable to specify at what point in the conflict. He claimed he remembered falling to the ground once or twice during the scuffle at the station and said it was possible he panicked and pulled his knife on them. “I don’t know, I have abrasions, I feel like I remember getting up off the ground,” Zemánek told the court. He also said he routinely carried the knife with him. Zemánek denied any connection to fascist or Nazi movements. On the day of the attack he was returning from a football match. When asked by one of the judges, the defendant said that while he used to be a member of the football “ultras”, he is no longer one today. He testified that he “doesn’t mind” Ukrainians, has many Ukrainian acquaintances, and regularly works with foreign nationals.

via romea: Defendant shouted “Ukrainians, go home!”, gave the Nazi salute, and stabbed a Belarusian man – now he tells a Czech court it was just a “run-of-the-mill, drunken conflict”