Slovak Foreign Minister Ivan Korčok has expressed his “shock” at CCTV footage showing “the brutality” of Belgian police restraining a Slovak man who died in police custody at Charleroi airport in 2018.
Images of the police intervention surfaced in Belgian media this week, showing officers restraining the man by putting a blanket over his head. One officer sat on him for 16 minutes. The images also show several officers laughing during the incident, while another appears to give a Nazi salute.
“Like the whole Slovak public, I was shocked by the footage published by the Belgian media and the brutality that Belgian police officers inflicted on our citizen Jozef Chovanec in a cell in 2018,” Korčok said, adding that his ministry has been in contact with the Belgian authorities in Brussels.
Chovanec had been detained in a police cell at the airport after causing a disturbance on his flight.
Noting that a senior Belgian police officer has stepped down over the video images, Korčok said the Belgian authorities must be aware of the gravity and urgency of the matter, and “this whole scandalous case will be thoroughly investigated.”
The video has triggered public outrage in Belgium too, and parliament will discuss the matter at a meeting next week. Both the justice and interior ministers have called for a thorough investigation.