The neo-Nazis arrested last week on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack in the Czech Republic were trained by a member of the Czech armed forces, authorities say. Czech national police commander Oldrich Martinu made the announcement on Czech TV Oct. 25. Military training of the far-right militants was also mentioned by Robert Slachta, head of the Organized Crime Detection Unit (ÚOOZ), after evaluating film footage of the training. In the footage masked men taught the neo-Nazis how to disable an opponent armed with a knife or gun.
Martinu was quick to absolve the police forces in the training. "This did not involve anyone from the police—this was a professional from another armed unit, and that is what is alarming," he said. He did not specifically say that the trainer was from the Czech army, but media accounts have pointed out several cases of soldiers participating in neo-Nazi marches recently.
Meanwhile, the Workers' Youth civic association (Dûlnická Mládei—DM) is preparing to file a complant with the Police Presidium charging that during the house searches, ÚOOZ members confiscated the DM membership card index and promotional materials for the Workers' Party, with which DM is affiliated. Workers' Party chair Tomás Vandas said the police action was a desperate attempt by the government of find evidence of illegal behavior by members or sympathizers of the party. The Supreme Administrative Court will soon decide on a government proposal to dissolve the party. (Romea [2], Prague, Oct. 26)
See our last post on the Czech neo-Nazi case [3].
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