The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said July 20 that it was "deeply disturbed" by the murder of Slovak Roma Harol Sendrei, who died in police custody July 6 of massive internal injuries.
An investigation has begun, with the case officer so far refusing to release details of his findings. He has, however, said a Roma policemen was among the police officers involved, lessening the likelihood that the police's treatment of Sendrei had a racial motive.
Meanwhile, Columbus Igboanusi, chairman of the League of Human Rights Activists, has asked the Bratislava law office of Zdenka Kleimanová to represent Sendrei's two sons, who were also hospitalised after their release from police custody July 6. The two are charged with assault on a public official and trespassing.
Kleimanová last year represented the Baláž family of northern Slovakia's Žilina, in which Roma mother Anna Balážová was killed after being struck in the head by stick-wielding youths who had invaded her home and attacked her children.
30. Jul 2001 at 0:00 | From press reports of TASR and SITA
