Slovakia takes Belgium to European human rights court over police custody death
Slovakia has filed a complaint against Belgium with the European Court of Human Rights over the death of Jozef Chovanec, a Slovak national who died in 2018 after being violently restrained by police in a cell at Charleroi airport.
The Slovak government lodged the complaint on 27 February, the Court of Human Rights said in a press release on Friday. The Belgian government was officially informed on 3 March. Third parties now have twelve weeks to intervene in the case.
Dootage of the incident showed police officers smiling and one giving a Nazi salute
Jozef Chovanec died in 2018 in the Marie Curie hospital in Charleroi after being admitted on 24 February following a heart attack. The 38-year-old Slovak businessman was trying to catch a flight to his home country from Charleroi airport, but was locked in a cell at the airport for behaving aggressively. Suffering from delirium, Chovanec repeatedly banged his head against the wall of his cell.
Chovanec was subsequently violently restrained by several police officers, who eventually wrapped his head in a blanket and injected him with a sedative. CCTV footage of the incident showed the officers smiling and one giving a Nazi salute.
No trial in Belgium
In September last year, the Charleroi court ruled that there would be no trial over Chovanec's death: all 31 suspects were cleared of all charges. Chovanec's widow and the Slovak state lodged an appeal, which has yet to be heard by the chamber of indictment.
This is the first time that Belgium has been taken to the European Court of Human Rights by another country
This is the first time that Belgium has been taken to the European Court of Human Rights by another country. Belgium has been condemned by the Court on several occasions, including over conditions in its prisons, but those cases were brought by individual plaintiffs or organisations.
A Chovanec case folder in the court of Charleroi, September 2024 © BELGA PHOTO ERIC LALMAND
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