GENERAL Prosecutor Jaromír Čižnár has dismissed a district prosecutor in Nitra for the case of the alleged neo-Nazi attack in front of the local Mariatchi bar and submitted disciplinary motions against two supervising prosecutors, the TASR newswire reported on March 28.
Čižnár did not accept the mild reprimands the regional prosecutor Vojtech Ernest administered to two prosecutors who allegedly mishandled the cases of the two assaults that occurred in front of the bar, Andrea Predajňová, spokesperson for the General Prosecutor’s Office, told TASR. She added that Čižnár’s decisions were approved by the Council of Prosecutors.
Moreover, the general prosecutor is cooperating with the investigator in the case, Predajňová said, without providing any other details, as the preliminary proceeding is not finished yet.
Earlier in March Čižnár also punished Ernest, who penalised the two prosecutors with a warning and a reproach, the mildest forms of disciplinary actions that the regional prosecutor can administer. One prosecutor was punished for failing to write a report over the detention and release of the suspects in the attack, while the other was reprimanded for violating her duties.
The story of what has been described as attacks by neo-Nazis emerged only after the Sme daily published a video of the first attack caught by a municipal security street camera. The footage shows a group of men attacking patrons of the Mariatchi bar, a popular student hangout in downtown Nitra, with the assailants kicking one victim in the head repeatedly. The incident was reportedly just one in a series of similar attacks.
On New Year’s Eve, Mariatchi customers were attacked by neo-Nazis from Walhala, a neighbouring club. Though officially listed as a “private card-playing club”, according to Mariatchi owner Radovan Richtárik, it is a pub whose clientele regularly gets drunk and misbehaves, as reported by Sme. Richtárik’s leg was broken in the New Year’s Eve assault.
Though the attackers’ faces are clearly visible in the video footage of the first assault, the police waited until after Sme broke the story to charge the alleged perpetrators.
Source: TASR, Sme
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
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