Czechs seeking Gypsy attacks mastermind

Published: Aug. 17, 2009 at 4:13 PM

PRAGUE, Czech Republic, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Czech police are seeking an ultra-rightist who likely orchestrated racially motivated assaults on Gypsies, a Czech lawyer said.

Four men, all in their mid-20s, last week were charged in an arson attack that police described as the "attempted murder" of a Gypsy family, but attorney Markus Pape told the Czech news agancy CTK the suspects were mere pawns.

Police are now focusing those who gave the orders, Pape said.

Martin Pecina, Czech interior minister Sunday suggested the arson was connected with the far-right Workers' Party DS, but party leader Tomas Vandas denied any links.

The four suspects are charged with tossing gasoline bottles that sparked fire in the village of Vitkov near Ostrava in the northeastern Czech Republic in April.

Three Gypsies, or Romanies as they are formally called, were injured. One of them, a 2-year-old girl remains hospitalized with serious burns on 80 percent of her body.

The four men are suspected of supporting ultra-rightists and the Czech neo-Nazi National Resistance, a group banned by a Czech court, CTK quoted experts in extreme nationalist groups as saying.