Postview: Judges are right; Klaus is wrong

It seems more than obvious that the four unrepentant criminals who firebombed a Roma family's home with the intent to kill in 2009 deserve the maximum punishment the legal system has to offer.

Their crime was horrible, and a now 4-year-old girl will bear the physical, emotional and neurological scars for the rest of her life. The Ostrava court and the prosecutor in the case should be commended for handing out 20- to 22-year sentences to them all.

Much less commendable were the comments by President Václav Klaus in the wake of the sentencing, which go beyond perplexing to completely irresponsible. In calling the punishment "unexpectedly harsh," Klaus is tacitly accepting this sort of behavior.

Now, this is not to say that Klaus endorses racially motivated violence, because he doesn't, but it is to say he does not condemn it.

For a man who is fond of accusing the judiciary of interfering in the world of politics, it is a strange choice for him, a politician, to give such an opinion on this specific case. What possible motivation could he have had for saying such things other than to influence future sentencings in similar cases? It takes only seconds to realize on whose behalf he is intervening.

Klaus is known as a contrarian and favors walking his own path. He alternately takes strong stands on free-market and nationalist principles and occasionally, it seems, just to be provocative. But this is also what makes him an interesting political figure.

Personality quirks aside, Klaus does hold an official role - that of head of state - and that state, as this Vítkov case exemplifies, has problems with racial discrimination to the point of violence. The Czech Republic is hardly alone in this, but it is hard to picture any world leader (with the possible exception of Mahmoud Ahmadenejad) saying something as outlandish and irresponsible in reaction to the problem as Klaus did.

The global economic downturn has made much of the world fertile ground for scapegoating, which has seen extremist groups assert themselves throughout Central Europe and beyond in recent years. One need only look at the disturbing trends in Germany (See story, this page) to know the phenomenon is affecting even the most developed states.

Klaus is a fan of strongly opposing things: global warming, the Lisbon Treaty. Why not add racism and hate crimes to that list?

If Klaus were to read this, he would likely condemn all of the above as an annoyance coming from "some foreigner," and maybe that is the gist of the problem.