The Belgian government has been called in to investigate the death of a man in police custody after an official sat on his rib cage for 16 minutes and another apparently made a Nazi salute.
Jozef Chovanec, a 38-year-old Slovak citizen, was arrested in February 2018 at Charleroi airport after causing a disturbance when he boarded a flight to Bratislava. Taken to a cell, he began banging his head against a wall, causing bleeding.
On Wednesday, video footage appeared showing him being penned by six police officers in the cell. One officer sat on his rib cage for 16 minutes, according to Het Laatse Nieuws, who received the recordings.
The officers laughed “exuberantly” while one danced and made a Nazi salute, according to a report from a doctor. A blanket sat for a while over Chovanec’s face. Chovanec died the next day in hospital.
His wife, Henrieta Chovancova, said the assassination of George Floyd in the US in May brought to mind the death of her husband. “When [the police] saw the blood, they should have given him first aid. Instead, they sat with so many people on him. He could not breathe well, ‘she said.
She is worried that the case will be handled and has appointed a new judge.
A spokesman for the Charleroi Public Ministry, which has been investigating the case for two and a half years, told Belgian media that there had been “a delay” due to the coronavirus pandemic, but said all officers involved had been interviewed.
A police source told the regional paper Sudpresse that the officer who appeared to make the Nazi salute would be fired.
An autopsy found that Chovanec had not taken any drugs or alcohol, and his family does not know the reason for his behavior at the airport. He commuted between Slovakia and Belgium, where he ran an agency that recruited Slovak workers to work on construction sites.
On Thursday, the mayor of Charleroi, Paul Magnette, called on the Minister of the Interior, Pieter De Crem, to investigate the matter. “I, like so many people, am shocked by the images in the press,” tweeted Magnette, who is also leader of the Francophone Socialist Party of Belgium. “This behavior is not acceptable. As far as the federal police are concerned, I ask the authority of the Minister of the Interior to do everything possible to shed light on these actions. ‘
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