More than 30 Roma reported injuries following a police raid on June 19 of a Roma settlement in Moldava nad Bodvou, Košice Region, 15 of whom say they were beaten at the police station, the Sme daily reported on June 24.
Roma from the village believe that the police were enacting revenge on them for their alleged involvement in a prior attack on a police patrol, for which two people have already been charged. One of two police officers who arrived at a local cultural event due to complaints of loud behaviour among Roma was injured in this prior incident, while some Roma at the scene threw stones through the windows of a police car.
The police said that they were looking for specific suspects and that they found one, Sme wrote.
Field social worker Otto Horváth described the attack as inhumane, unfair and sad.
Doctors in Košice who treated Róbert Rybár, one of the victims of the attack, said he had blood in his urine, and suffered a broken rib and bruising on his neck and spine from being hit with a truncheon. Michal Hudák of ETP Slovensko civic association was also brutally beaten. He said that the police asked nothing and beat whomever they caught, Sme reported.
Spokesperson for the Košice regional police Jana Mesárová told Sme that the police did not record the operation, and that they came to Moldava nad Bodvou to detain several people and to seize stolen possessions.
Source: Sme
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
