On the 9th of January in 1968 TV Zagreb screened a short documentary film titled as “Devaluation of a smile”. The documentary was dedicated to Arif Heralikj, a miner who decorated the 10 Dinar bill in the times of former Yugoslavia. What many don’t know is the fact that Arif never gave his permission to use the picture and to print it on a bill, and an even less known fact is that many people don’t know his name, and also that he was of Roma nationality, he was often confused with Alija Sirotanovikj.

Heralikj raised his voice against the state and demanded compensation which he never got. He passed away in poverty and poor mental health which was the result of his fierce clash with the state.

This documentary was screened just once on TV and never again due to pressure from the state which claimed that the screening was a mistake, and the editor of the film program quit his position right after the screening of the film.

The Czech daily Právo reports that two of the four convicted arsonists who committed a racially-motivated attack with Molotov cocktails on the home of a Romani family in Vítkov (Opava district) that almost cost the life of their two-year-old daughter Natálka have asked for parole.

Exceptional punishments for racially-motivated attempted murder

In the late night hours of 18 April and early morning hours of 19 April 2009, a small group of extreme-right sympathizers used Molotov cocktails to attack house number 58 in Vítkov (Opava district), which was inhabited by a Romani family. Three masked perpetrators threw one gas-filled bottle each through the ground-floor windows.

The arsonists then got into a car where an accomplice was waiting and disappeared from the scene. The powerful fire they started almost cost Natálka her life and injured her father and mother.

Natálka suffered burns over 80 % of her body. She was brought to hospital in critical condition and was not released until eight months later.

The trial began in May 2010 in Ostrava. Václav Cojocaru, Jaromír Lukeš, Ivo Müller and David Vaculík sat on the bench for defendants.

According to experts on extremism, all four young men were active neo-Nazis, which was proven by items found during house searches. Vaculík, moreover, came to court more than once wearing the Thor Steinar brand of clothing, a favorite among neo-Nazis.

The defendants argued that they never suspected the single-family home was inhabited. They claimed to have considered it a warehouse of stolen property.

Link: https://romea.cz/en/czech-republic/czech-republic-two-neo-nazi-arsonists-request-parole-romani-mother-of-burn-victim-disagrees