Free Mario!

On 17th August, Mario Bango, 21 year old Roma activist, appeared before the Supreme Court of Slovakia to appeal against his conviction of attempted murder and his sentence of 12 years imprisonment. The Supreme Court upheld his conviction, but reduced his sentence to 10 years � the lowest imprisonment sentence for a crime of this nature. Joy Knight was at his appeal.

Mario entered the court gaunt and pale, but with a fighting spirit. He showed the gallery his notebook with a picture of Che Guevara on the front. International solidarity activists from the UK and Austria were there to give their support at a very difficult time � this was the highest court and was seen as the last possibility to overturn the conviction of a lower court. On 20th November, 2003 the Regional Court had convicted him of attempted murder and sentenced him to 12 years.

His crime? Defending himself and his twin brother, Edo, against a racially motivated attack on a bus in Petrazalka, a district of Bratislava in March, 2001. Because of the racism Roma face in Slovakia, they are often victims of physical attacks (Edo himself had been hospitalised a few months previous), and Mario carried a knife for self-defence. He used it against their attacker, Branislav Slamka.

Slamka died in hospital a few weeks later from a brain haemorrhage.

Slamka was known for his racist views and had fascist associations, although it is unknown if he belonged to a fascist organisation. The time of the attack was only four days before a neo-nazi celebration of the first Slovak state � a fascist state. Mario reacted in this way because both he and his brother had suffered previous attacks from the skinhead movement, and also as a result of long term stress from racism. The bus driver confirms that he had seen other skinhead attacks on Roma on his bus.

The case was politicised from the beginning. The prosecuting lawyer, Robert Fico, is the leader of the chauvinist 'social democratic' opposition party in Slovakia. The parliament held a minute's silence to honour Slamka � something that is only done in very exceptional circumstances, for example the NATO attack on Yugoslavia.

During the proceedings of Mario's trial, the general prosecution office, which has overseen his case from the beginning, changed the charge levelled against him by the District Court from "grievous bodily harm" to attempted murder.

His Defence

Mario's defence was that he acted in self-defence or "necessary defence". Fico, the prosecuting lawyer, wrote a book promoting the legality of such a defence. In this book, he states that the "attacker is the person who initiates the fight. Even if the defender is stronger or uses a weapon, he/she cannot be considered the attacker." And yet this defence fell on deaf ears in the courts. Other mitigating details:

- the assessment made by the psychiatrist stating that Mario was acting spontaneously and responding to the events
- he was emotionally distraught and agitated � during the incident he also cut his brother's hand by mistake
- he is young and had never been in trouble before
- he showed regret over his act
- he co-operated with the police: rang them and waited from them to arrive
- his willingness to pay indemnity to Slamka's family
- Slamka's death was not caused by the wounds inflicted by Mario, but by a brain haemorrage two weeks later.

His Appeal

These facts were presented for a second time, to the Supreme Court. The appeal was based on three points: 1) the district court didn't take into account all the facts, 2) the decision is breaking certain paragraphs of the punitive law, and 3) the punishment is not fitting to the crime.

The general prosecutor came to the court to support the ruling from above, but the representative, a district court judge, argued for a reduction in the sentence to the lowest possible length (10 years).

The outcome of his appeal, although lessening the sentence by two years, highlights the institutional state racism that the Roma face. None of the mitigating circumstances were taken into consideration and the conviction of attempted murder was upheld.

The state racism that the Roma face in Slovakia does not stop with the judiciary system but permeates every aspect of life. Roma are marginalised in Slovakia. They are discriminated against in education, employment and housing. In eastern Slovakia, the unemployment is as high as 94% in Roma areas,. In Petrazalka, a Soviet-era highrise housing estate home to 140,000 people, Edo and his mother live in a segregated block of flats � physically separate from the other blocks, situated in a wasteland area near small factories. This building is used by the council to house Roma families and other 'undesirables' like drug addicts and petty criminals.

The Free Mario Bango Campaign organised a press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court directly following the decision. Mario's lawyer, Stanislav Jakubèík, addressed about 20 journalists from television and radio on the outcome of the trial and possibilities to take it further. Michael Pröbsting from Austria spoke about the political nature of the case, pointing the finger at Fico and his racist party. At the same moment, Fico had also called a press conference at his party's headquarters. The story was picked up by three different news channels. Two were more favourable and gave a better account of the case, while the third was very biased towards the court's verdict. The struggle for Mario's release still continues.

Mario's lawyer, Jakubèík, wants to continue to pursue the case in the courts. He wants to initiate an extraordinary measure and convince the general prosecution office to call this verdict illegal. He plans to argue that at the beginning of the proceedings the charge was 'grievous bodily harm', not attempted murder. This case was supervised from above from the beginning, yet the charge was changed half way through the trial. If this is successful, it will go to another Supreme Court. Jakubèík will also again argue for the mitigating circumstances to be taken into account. In paragraph 14 of the punitive law, it states that if there are strong mitigating circumstances, the court can give a lesser sentence than the legal minimum.

There is also a possibility of appealing to the Constitutional Court, but it is much more difficult to argue in this court and most rulings are negative. This will take a maximum of one year because it is a big case.

And last, but not least, is taking it all the way to the European Court.

But this could take years. Right now his youth is being stolen from him. In Slovakia, prisoners can apply for early parole only after two thirds of the sentence has been served � but all depends on the evaluation of his behaviour, i.e. he cannot have any punishment and must be seen to be improving himself.

There are things that we can do outside the courts. We must build solidarity for the immediate release of Mario. We must petition for this support to build a mass international campaign and put pressure on the Slovakian government so that it becomes politically untenable for them to keep him in prison. FREE MARIO BANGO!

Write to Mario to show him your support and to keep his morale up:

M�rio Bango, nar. 8. 6. 1982
PS41 019-17
ILAVA
Slovakia
Please sign the online petition soon to be up on the www.freemario.org website. Keep your eyes peeled�