A house inhabited by a large Roma family was attacked by four youths in March 2009 with Molotov cocktails. A two-year-old girl almost died in the fire, she only survived thanks to the excellent work of doctors. David Vaculík and Jaromír Lukeš received exceptional sentences of 22 years in prison, Ivo Müller and Václav Cojocaru two years less. At the time of the crime, all sympathized with the ideas of neo-Nazism and participated in the actions of extremists.
While the last two named were released on parole after serving two-thirds of their sentences in May 2023, and Lukeš last September, Vaculík does not appear to be trying to be paroled. “I have no information about that happening,” confirmed the representative of the injured family, Pavel Uhl.
According to the participants in the proceedings, this is not a big surprise considering how Vaculík acted before. He was the only one of the four who did not testify after his arrest. He did not say a word about the act itself during interrogations by the police, nor in court during the main trial. He was the only one who did not write a letter of apology to the victims and expressed no remorse. Prosecutor Brigita Bilíková called him the main mastermind during the trial and pointed out that he was acting according to the principles of the neo-Nazi organization Combat 18, specifically according to the principles of lone wolf warfare. These principles mainly recommend keeping silent and not allowing dialogue with the victims.
According to activist Markus Pape, who represented the injured family in court, Vaculík’s attitude is not surprising. “Already last year, when we participated in the proceedings on the conditional release of Jaromír Lukeš, we had the news that Vaculík was not cooperating. Jaromír Lukeš himself, who shared a cell with David Vaculík, said that they do not even talk about this matter at all,” said Pape.
“It’s a question of how to interpret it. Whether he’s just stuck and doesn’t want to cooperate with the authorities, or he takes it to mean that he got the punishment rightfully, and that’s why he’s going to serve it. I don’t know, we can’t see into his head,” said Pape.
The fact that perpetrators of serious crimes do not apply for parole is not that exceptional. As prison psychologist Václav Jiříček told Novinkám, there could be more reasons. “Especially from those we work with therapeutically and long-term, we know how difficult it is for them to change their self-image. It means for them to adopt a new identity that is completely different from what they had up to that point,” he said, noting that it also has to do with the legal requirements for parole. And these include the court’s promise that the released person will lead an orderly life, as well as self-reflection, which is a problem for many convicts.
“It certainly plays a big role in what kind of relationship background a person has when they are free, and whether they look forward to freedom is also connected to that. I often hear from people in prison that they at least mean something behind bars, but they mean nothing outside,” Jiříček added.
