Police shooting investigation to be dealt with by parliamentary committee

A special session of the Parliamentary Committee for Defence and Security. initiated by opposition MPs, will deal with the investigation of the shooting on D2 highway from June 2013.

A special session of the Parliamentary Committee for Defence and Security. initiated by opposition MPs, will deal with the investigation of the shooting on D2 highway from June 2013.

“It is possible that the Interior Ministry inspection marred the investigation of this incident, potentially a serious crime, and there is a suspicion that the crime of abuse of powers of public official has been committed,” committee member Ľubomír Galko (Freedom and Solidarity, SaS). “There is a suspicion that key evidence was damaged that should have been used against the police officers – the video-recording of the whole case. We consider this inexcusable,” he added, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

Four students were pulled over on the D2 highway in June 2013 because their car was listed on a police database as belonging to wanted entrepreneur Milan Ďuriš, suspected of a murder in Orava. Though it is true that the car belonged to Ďuriš some six years ago, it has since changed owners twice.

The students asserted that the police had no reason to shoot at their car. In addition to being shot at, the students objected to the way in which they were subsequently treated. They claim that they were handcuffed and ordered to lie down on the road with other cars passing just a few metres away. Then they were left standing in the rain for an hour, having been told to switch off their mobile phones. The entire operation lasted more than five hours, with the students having no idea as to why they had been stopped and interrogated for much of that time, TASR wrote.

Another committee member, Richard Vašečka (Ordinary people and Independent Personalities, OĽaNO) commented that in spite of hundreds of good and honest policemen, a case like this shows police fault and its covering up, asking how come that instead of drawing due consequences, evidence is destroyed.

Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák (Smer) and Police President Tibor Gašpar will appear before the committee. Galko proposes, as a solution especially for future, to split the police inspection form the police itself.

TV JOJ reported that police officers form the presidium proceeded outside the normal routine when they travelled to Záhorie to obtain a file concerning the suspension of the driving license of one of the students. Then they brought the file to Senec, without duly registering it; then inspection came and took 18 pages from the file – including the crucial video-recording. It used it and then returned it – however not to Senec, but to the Regional Directorate in Bratislava, where the video-recording was destroyed.

(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.

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