On November 20, the Bratislavan county  court sentenced Mario Bango to 12 years in prison without parole for attempted murder. Allegedly he committed this crime on March 10, 2001, when he injured Branislav Slamka with a knife on the bus. Mario, who is a young Roma, an antifascist activist and a member of the revolutionary Marxist League for the 5th International, was only defending his brother Eduard from the racially motivated attack.

The fact that this was a case of self-defence was completely ignored by the court. The defence lawyer was unable to find a witness who was unafraid to state publicly what antifascists have known for a long time - that Slamka was a member of the movement of "National Socialists" and had previously participated in racist and politically motivated neo-nazi attacks. The county court explained the verdict with the argument that "Slamka was perfectly healthy when he got on the bus." This ignores the fact that no relationship could be established between the knife wounds caused by Mario and the head injury that led to Slamka∂s death. Mario∂s intention to kill Slamka could also not be established. And nonetheless such a tough sentence was meted out to Mario who has no criminal record.

It is more than obvious that this sentence expresses the racist prejudice of the court. The case became politically interesting when Slamka∂s defence was taken over by Robert Fico, chairman of the populist party, SMER. The Slovakian parliament even held a minute of silence for the dead nazi on a motion of the HZDS member of parliament, Kalman.

The sentence of the county  court is in sharp contrast to the indifference of the Slovakian police and judiciary when dealing with attacks by neo-nazis or other racist crimes, for example in the case of Karol Sendrei from Magnezitoviece  who was murdered by the mayor and his son, a police officer. In the Czech Republic, in similar cases of self-defence against nazi attacks, the sculptor Pavel Opocensky and the anarchist Michal Patera were set free.

Eduard Bango and his mother sang the Internationale as the sentence was pronounced.

The defence immediately appealed the case, which will be continued before the Supreme Court. However, the behaviour of the district and county courts, as well as the participation of the most popular man in Slovakian politics, Fico, leave little hope of a fair trial.

The international solidarity campaign to free Mario Bango is now more important than ever. Mario has already received support from many activists from cultural, trade union, political, human rights, and anti-racist organisations. The scandalous, racist sentence of the county court in Bratislava must be made known. In case you want to support Mario and the campaign for his release, contact the revolutionary youth organisation REVOLUTION.

More information about the case can be found at:
 http://freemario.webpark.cz



Racist attacks and murders are the hallmark of the discrimination and oppression of Roma in Eastern Europe. The state authorities ignore or minimise these attacks.
Mario Bango, a 21-year old Roma and anti-racist activist, was determined to stay and fight racism and fascism in his own country - Slovakia. He and his family were repeatedly the subject of racist abuse and physical attacks.
So in March 2001 when a Nazi attacked his brother on a bus, Mario defended him with his knife, which many young Roma carry because of the likelihood of life threatening attacks and because they know they will get no protection from the police.
Mario has been in prison for 3 years but Mario Bango is no criminal! His "crime" was to defend his brother from a brutal racist attack.
We call on all human rights, progressive, anti-racist organisations and individuals to support our call to the Slovakian authorities to drop the case against Mario Bango and to release him from prison.

Please write to him:
Mário Bango, nar. 8. 6. 1982
Ústav na vy´kon väzby
priecinok 1077
Chorvatská 5
812 29 Bratislava
Slovensko/Slovakia


ACTION
What you can do:
1. Send protest emails to the Justice department of the Slovak government.
email:  tlacove@justice.gov.sk

A model letter of protest can found at:  www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/Mario-index.html

2. Get Mario∂s case into the media, bring it to the attention of journalists, human rights organisations.

Write to Slovak authorites and demand Mario's release from prison:

Slovak president Rudolph Schuster
Kancelaria prezidenta SR
Stefanikova 14
814 38  Bratislava
ph: 00421-7-5441 6624

Ministry of Justice
Ministerstvo spravodlivosti SR
Zupne namestie 13
813 11 Bratislava
ph: 00421-7-5935 3497
fax: 00421-7-5443 0467
email:  tlacove@justice.gov.sk

The Government
Urad vlady SR
Namestie Slobody 1
813 70 Bratislava
ph: 00421-7-5729 5111
fax: 00421-7-5249 7595