After studying the file on the police operation on June 19, 2013, in a Roma settlement in Moldava nad Bodvou, the regional prosecutor in Prešov has ordered a prosecution in this case.
The prosecution concerns the suspicion of crimes of abuse of public official’s powers, bodily harm and violation of privacy, spokesman of the Prosecutor’s Office Marián Spišák told the SITA newswire. Previously, the General Prosecutor’s Office found that there are enough reasons to launch a prosecution. A Banská Bystrica-based investigator of the Interior Ministry’s inspection was authorised to prosecute police officers involved in the raid.
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 has so far not found any flaws on the side of the police.
Recently, ombudswoman Jana Dubovcová attempted to report her opinion about the raid to the cabinet, but she wasn’t given the opportunity to spea. Dubovcová believes the raid was not justified, while Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák defends it. Dubovcová claimed in the report that the police breached several regulations, the TASR newswire wrote. The ombudswoman also challenged the objectivity of the probe launched by an Interior Ministry investigation team, arguing that the police did not even speak to the inhabitants of the settlement and based their investigation only on the testimonies of the police officers.
(Source: SITA, TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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