Daniel Tupý

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The monument erected in memory of Daniel Tupý. The inscription says: "At this place on 4 november 2005. Daniel Tupý, a student of the Faculty of Philosophy at Comenius University has been murdered"

Daniel Tupý (Žilina, 1984 – November 4, 2005, Petržalka, Bratislava) was a Slovak university student from Žilina. His violent death shocked the Slovak media and public, and aimed the public attention at the violence and growing dangers of the various Slovak extremist groups.

[edit] Life and death

Daniel was born and raised in Žilina. After graduating from high school, he entered the Comenius University and moved to Bratislava.

On November 4, 2005, Tupý was hanging out at the Tyršovo embankment of the Danube in Petržalka with his frends, when a group of neo-nazis suddenly attacked them from behind. During the attack Tupý suffered multiple stabs in the back and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. His friends were "just" beaten up; they fully recovered later. The true cause of the attack was never clarified, however multiple witnesses confessed that neo-nazis attacked them because Tupý (being a rocker) has had long hair, black clothes and a guitar with him. The media attention made the resolving of the case the top priority of the Slovak police, however his attackers were not undoubtedly identified yet. However the police claimed that they know the perpetrators, but they have insufficient evidence to arrest them.

On the first anniversary of his death, the Comenius University edited his poems into a book, which they titled "Ticho po anjelovi". Slovak interior minister, Robert Kaliňák held a speech, where he claimed, that the "perpetrators can not feel themselves safe". Concerts were also organized and held for commemorating his death. A memorial to the victims of racism and neo-Nazism was also erected, and unveiled at Bratislava's Tyršovo embankment on November 16, at the site of the murder. Numerous mass marches against racism were also held throughout November in Bratislava, Košice, Zvolen and Prešov, and ever since.

Part of the Daniel Tupy Memorial, marking the location of his murder

After three years of investigation, on February 27, 2008, three neo-nazis were arrested for murdering Daniel. A fourth one was also suspected, but he committed suicide sometime before the arrests. The number of suspects quicly rose to six. An unrevealed witness confessed in April 2008 that one of the suspects committed the murder, attacking Tupý from behind with two knives in hand, practically executing him. The witness also claimed that Tupý's friends were attacked by at least six other neo-nazis.

The five living suspects were arrested in a local bar, from where they often gone to "clean up" the neighbourhood. One of them later allegedly linked to the Bratislava maffia.

The statistics in 2005 showed a number of (at least) 121 crimes as "racially or ethnically motivated" or "motivated by some extremist cause", and 82 were solved. 25 of them were actual physical abuse, including Tupý and hist friends' case. Such attacks are mainly targeted and targeting Roma people, however the other minorities, most commonly the Hungarians also fell victims of such attacks. The most recent racially motivated attack, wich gained huge media attention and eventually had an impact on the Slovakian-Hungarian relations was Hedvig Malina's case.