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There has already been a diplomatic exchange between Belgium and Slovakia, but no reassuring progress has yet been made in clarifying the death of Slovak businessman Jozef Chovanec; The case only came to light in August, after a scandalous and flattering recording, Ann Van de Steen, Belgian lawyer for the widow Henrieta Chovancová, said in a statement to the Index.
Chovanec, who served as a mediator to Slovak workers in Belgium and thus regularly moved between the two countries, died in February 2018 after confronting the police at Charleroi airport near Brussels and behaving in a confusing manner. and messy. The captain of the plane he had traveled with refused to take off until the police acted. Subsequently, Chovanec was detained at a temporary airport.
Images from an industrial camera testify that one of the policewomen who intervened greeted her colleagues in the airport cell with a Nazi blow and knelt on Chovanec’s chest. Police officers laughing at the demonstration held the Slovakian man motionless for 16 minutes, pressing his knees to his chest. According to his widow, Chovanec may have been confused by an illness. In the cell, he deliberately hit his head against the wall, bleeding.
Unclear details
According to the official version, the businessman died in the hospital days later due to cardiac arrest; his widow, on the other hand, finds it conceivable that he was already there, they just wanted to take a shower.
After two and a half years, it is unclear what caused his death. Is it because he hit his head against the wall? He hadn’t been seen by a doctor for hours. We did not find the medical report satisfactory, our experts urge a full investigation
Van de Steen said. As he said, they are preparing for a lawsuit, the feeling that the authorities wanted to sweep the case under the rug.
Photo: COTTYN
My client is not primarily concerned with financial compensation. But hold everyone who played a role in Jozef Chovanec’s death accountable. He was not counted, he was treated like a piece of land and knelt for 16 minutes before dying. All of these need to be thoroughly investigated
The whole thing turned into a scandal only in the wake of Nazi recruitment and weapons. The policewoman, who was held responsible for this, said she was only joking, and already regretted it, after Chovanec allegedly denigrated them in German or “reminder language.”
How could this be a joke? And how could a man who could barely breathe do that? The police are there to protect us. From all the atmosphere that can be seen in the video, it turns out that this was not the case in this case. So you must not treat people like these cops did
– so the lawyer, who said that the swing was just the culmination of cruelty.
Chovanec, Mint George Floyd
Ann Van de Steen agrees to some extent with what many have suggested: this is the case with George Floyd in Europe. George Floyd died after being certified by a black and white police officer in Minneapolis, USA, in May of this year, sparking a wave of protests and riots that continued throughout the summer. Her case was also highlighted by a public recording. According to the legal representative of Henrieta Chovancová
If Chovanec had been Belgian, Belgium would have taken a different approach, that’s my personal opinion. But he was a foreigner. It is true that he is not black like George Floyd, but this case treated police violence in the same way. I imagine what they think about this in Slovakia – how is it possible that this happened in Belgium?
The question also arises as to why the search for liability in Belgium only began when the recording, which was attached to the case files, was made public.
Diplomatic and European affairs
Slovak Foreign Minister Ivan Korčok sent a diplomatic note to Belgium, and the matter has been under discussion for weeks. The Bratislava parliament urged the investigation in a resolution. Senior judicial officials will meet next Monday. The European Commission did not intervene because it considered the matter to be a matter for the Member States. Slovak MEPs recently called for Slovak witnesses to be heard.
Norbert Tóth, an international lawyer, told the current channel M1: the threads go far, the leaders of the EU may have a great responsibility in the matter.
At the time of Chovanec’s death, the current President of the European Council, Charles Michel, was the Prime Minister of Belgium, and the then Belgian Police Chief Catherine De Bolle was appointed Executive Director of Europol a few weeks after the events. .
(Cover image: Ctislav Pribina / YouTube)
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