Polish courts convict 14 in soccer violence

Fourteen soccer hooligans have been convicted in fast-track trials for their role in violent clashes when Poland and Russia faced off in an emotionally charged European Championship match earlier this week, a court official said on Thursday.

The trials in connection with Tuesday's disturbances are meant to show that Poland is serious about its policy of zero tolerance for violence as it co-hosts Euro 2012. Seven Poles were convicted on Wednesday and seven others on Thursday, Warsaw district court spokesman Wojciech Malek said.

They were found guilty of assaulting police officers and 'taking part in illegal gatherings'. He explained that street gatherings are considered illegal when participants join them with an obvious intent to be violent.

Some received prison sentences of various lengths while others got suspended sentences, he said. Courts plan further fast-track trials for dozens more in the coming days. Police detained 184 people for taking part in the clashes.

Some broke out before the match when thousands of Russian soccer fans marched to the National Stadium waving national flags and chanting 'Russia, Russia'.

The mass expression of Russian patriotism in Warsaw's capital was provocative to Poles, who still deeply resent Moscow's imposition of communism here during the Cold War. Many Poles felt authorities shouldn't have allowed the Russians to march as a group in Warsaw given the historical wounds, and some of the fighting was sparked by Polish hooligans who attacked Russians.

Separately, a group of young Poles also attacked police during the match with bottles, prompting officers to respond with rubber bullets and tear gas. Three dozen people were injured in the violence 19 civilians and 17 police officers. Police detained 156 Poles, 25 Russians, a Spaniard, a Hungarian and an Algerian for the fighting around Tuesday's emotionally charged game between Poland and Russia, which ended in a 1-1 tie.

On Wednesday, Poland's interior minister said the Russians would face trials aimed at expelling them from the country and lifting their European Union visas for five years. There was no violence at the stadium or in the downtown fan zone.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/161069" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-07e93e70f780cce5677cff6d1c24962c" value="form-07e93e70f780cce5677cff6d1c24962c" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80051656" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.