THE PRIVATE card-playing club Walhala in Nitra, where neo-Nazis from the town and its surrounding areas used to meet, will be closed. The owner of the building Ivan Polóny confirmed to the TA3 news channel that after seeing a video showing the brutal attacks on customers from nearby Mariatchi Bar they will terminate the lease agreement, the Sme daily reported in its February 7 issue.
“We agreed on terminating the rent on February 15,” Polóny said, as quoted by Sme.
Sme published the images, which show the youths kicking one victim in the head repeatedly, on January 28. The incident was reportedly just one in a series of similar attacks. The victims of the attack were patrons in front of the Mariatchi Bar in downtown Nitra, a popular student hangout.
October’s attack was not the only such incident to have occurred at Mariatchi. On New Year’s Eve, customers were attacked by neo-Nazis from Walhala. Though it is officially listed as a “private card-playing club”, it is a pub whose clientele regularly get drunk and misbehave, Radovan Richtárik, the owner of the Mariatchi Bar, told Sme. His leg was broken in the New Year’s assault.
Though the first attack was recorded via the town’s street cameras and the attackers’ faces are visible, the police waited until after Sme broke the story to charge the perpetrators. The police also detained five suspects, but released them after two days.
This step was criticised by General Prosecutor Jaromír Čižnár. According to him, the prosecutors responsible for the release failed to check the suspects’ backgrounds in the penal register.
Source: Sme
For more information about this story please see: Neo–nazi attacks shock Slovakia
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
