THE FILING room of the Government Office has received a letter from Ombudswoman Jana Dubovcová in which she expresses concern over the police raid in Moldava nad Bodvou, which she addressed to Prime Minister Robert Fico. It was accepted it only on a second attempt, as for the first time it returned it due to the lack of some formalities, the Sme daily reported in its December 17 issue.
Meanwhile, the Office of the General Prosecutor ordered to launch criminal prosecution over the police raids in Moldava nad Bodvou and Drienovec, both in Košice Region, the Sme.sk website wrote.
Dubovcová writes in the letter that she disagrees with the way the police and the Interior Ministry handled the raid which took place in mid-June. According to her, the fundamental human rights were violated and nobody has adopted measures to protect people who faced the raid or were taken to the police as yet, Sme wrote.
On June 19, 63 police officers raided the Roma settlement informally named Budulovská, purportedly seeking seven men for which they had arrest warrants. They found none of those men, but violence ensued and 15 other Roma were taken to the police station. While police allege they were attacked upon entering the 800-person settlement, none of the 15 detained were ever charged with a crime resulting from the clash. Several of the Roma were injured, and at least one of them contends that he underwent two more severe beatings at the police station itself. A second alleges he left the station bleeding from his rectum. An NGO active in the settlement, ETP Slovensko, documented injuries with photographs.
The inspection of the Interior Ministry did not find any flaws on the side of the police, but Dubovcová said that they did not check the raids objectively. She claims that the inspection they carried out showed that the police had baselessly retained the people for five to six hours. She also did not accept the promise of the Interior Ministry to prepare the law that will allow making recordings of the police raids.
She added that the government should task Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák to secure that similar mistakes do not take place again. The General Prosecutor’s Office claims there is a reason to start criminal prosecution over the raid.
Dubovcová also called the return of the letter “ridiculous”, explaining that the public defender of rights is not a subordinate of the Government Office. Her office only changed the font, but not the content, according to Sme.
Source: Sme
For more information about this story please see: UN condemns Moldava raid
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
