The Czech Republic has released those detained in the case of the attack on Ukrainian volunteers on June 1. The country's prosecutor's office claims that nothing criminal occurred during the incident.
This was reported by the Novinky portal, citing the press secretary of the Prague city prosecutor's office, Aleš Cymbala.
According to him, among those detained were citizens of one of the countries of the European Union – as Novinky writes, citizens of Germany. Although Russian tourists were initially suspected of being involved in the attack due to the accents of those filmed, only one of those detained is of “Russian-Ukrainian origin.”
One of the participants in the attack was detained at the scene of the incident, four more — taken into custody at the airport. The police interrogated everyone and reviewed video recordings of the attack, not only those made by Ukrainian volunteers, but also those filmed by the detainees themselves, as well as footage from city surveillance cameras.
It is allegedly unclear from the video whether the detainees actually approve of the war in Ukraine. A police spokesman said that in some footage, when asked “Are you in the Czech Republic and do you approve of Russia?” one of the detainees only replied: “Yes, yes, I am in the Czech Republic.” Police say it is unclear whether the participants in the dispute realized what they were arguing about.
In addition, the CCTV footage does not show that one of the detainees hit one of the volunteers, and the police also did not find any injuries. Consequently, there was no socially harmful behavior of the detainees for which they could be punished, Novinky quotes the speaker.
Since the criminal liability of none of the detainees could not be established, three of them were released the day before, on June 3, and two more — today, June 4th. They also have not been charged with any charges, but the police will continue to investigate.
The case may be referred to an administrative body, which may, in particular, impose a fine. The police added that “the situation was opaque and confusing,” and “a misunderstanding could have occurred.”
On June 1, on Old Town Square in Prague, two Russian-speaking foreigners attacked volunteers who were collecting donations for Ukraine from stand of the Prague Maidan.
One of the volunteers distributed a video of the attack online. The footage shows a man and woman speaking Russian trying to beat up the volunteers. The man says in German with a Russian accent that he is a “German.”
The Czech portal Novinky wrote that the participants in the fight shouted at each other in Russian and Ukrainian, fought with umbrellas, and later the “stand” was vandalized “Prague Maidan”, near which everything happened.
On June 3, four suspects of involvement in the attack were detained at Prague airport. Then investigators opened a criminal case against them on suspicion of committing several criminal offenses. The police also said that based on new discovered facts, the case would most likely be reclassified.
Prepared by: Nina Petrovich