An investigator of the Interior Ministry's Inspectorate (UIS) has pressed charges of manslaughter against a Kosice police officer, TASR learnt on Tuesday.
According to the Inspectorate, the officer in question, while on duty in early November, inflicted multiple injuries to the head and body of an individual detained while perpetrating a crime, with the detainee succumbing to the injuries in hospital the following day.
The Inspectorate detained one other police officer during the same operation on Tuesday, but this officer has been released from detention in the meantime.
The Interior Ministry noted in this vein that no further information can be provided at this time due to the ongoing investigation.
According to Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Hlas-SD), a police officer must face the same consequences for his or her actions as any other person provided he or she violates the law. In this context, the minister announced an increase in the intensity of preventive training of police officers as well as the preparation of a project of body cameras during raids. Sutaj Estok also wants to ask Police Corps President Lubomir Solak about other steps he plans to take to prevent similar situations.
"The police officer who committed the act was immediately apprehended by the Interior Ministry's Inspection Service Office and charges were brought against him. However, that can't be enough. I won't be satisfied with a simple closure of the situation where the guilty person is given a just punishment. We must prevent such situations in the first place. That's why since my arrival, we've increased the intensity of preventive training for police officers, where they are trained on how to react properly in tense situations, and we're also preparing a project of body cameras that will monitor police officers' interventions," he posted on a social networking site.
Ombudsman Robert Dobrovodsky is horrified by suspicions of police brutality and hopes that the incident is investigated as early as possible.
"I'm horrified to learn of suspicions of police brutality and on the eve of the 35th anniversary of the Fight for Freedom and Democracy Day, when the society agreed to limit the arbitrariness of repressive power forces. It's one of my priorities to carry out human rights supervision over ways the executive power is carried out in our state. The executive power and the police enjoy a monopoly to violence not to hurt the people but rather to protect them from criminals," he noted.
Dobrovodsky underlined in this context that the police must be made to record the course of any operation in which the use of force is exercised.
Source: TASR
