Brno - After six months of hearings, the prosecution on Monday 1 December asked Brno Regional Court to send five Roma to jail for four to 12 years for an attempted murder of Josef Lakatoš in a dispute between two Romani clans over a bride and her dowry.
The defendants stand accused of breaking into Lakatoš's flat in Prostějov and beating the man up with sticks. Ladislav Daniš is facing the highest penalty for wounding the victim with an illegally held 9mm handgun. The court is to deliver a verdict on 10 December.
Daniš and Lakatoš are members of two different clans of the Olach (Wallachian) Roma. A dispute between the clans erupted after Lakatoš's underage daughter Silvie ran away from her fiancé, Lucián Daniš, with whom she has two children, to live with another man.
The Daniš family demanded a refund of a CZK 70,000 dowry they had paid for the bride. After the Lakatoš family refused to pay back, the disappointed suitor and his relatives came to revenge the disgrace.
Lakatoš and his partner, Helena, said the shooter was Ladislav Daniš. In his final speech on Monday, Daniš said he "really had nothing to do with this", but refused to say which of his co-defendants should take the blame.
Lawyer quotes tribal laws
Daniš's lawyer Petr Dítě said the court should consider that the defendants were acting in line with the customs of the Romani community. "The Romani habits, customs and laws, which members of the community view as superior to Czech laws, should be taken into account," said Dítě.
The lawyer quoted a recent ruling by a court in Italy, which acquitted a Romani woman who had used a four-year-old child to increase her chances as a beggar. The court said that using small children for begging is a Romani tradition.
Dítě added that his client had been speculatively named as the shooter because he was the only one of the attackers who was able to buy himself out of the crime under the Romani tribal laws. The lawyer added that the hearings had not sufficiently proved the identity of the shooter.
The attacked man, Josef Lakatoš, called on the two clans to settle their disputes.
