Czech police have arrested four men suspected of vandalizing a Jewish cemetery last month.
Police refused to say whether the suspects, three of whom are teen-agers, are skinheads. But they did confirm that two of the accused have been in trouble with the police before.
They are being charged under the Czech Republic’s anti-hate crime laws, as well as with criminal hooliganism.
If convicted, the minors face a maximum of one and a half years in prison, while the fourth suspect, who is 21, could be jailed for up to three years.
The cemetery in the eastern Czech town of Trutnov was systematically desecrated on Nov. 11.
More than 40 headstones were overturned, and vandals spray-painted “Death to Jews” at the cemetery and on other Jewish memorials in the town.
According to the Federation of Czech Jewish Communities, there are no Jews living in the economically depressed town.
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