Slovak President asks for explanation of incident in which police officer brutalized young children in Romani settlement

Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová has asked Police President Milan Lučanský to explain the incident Monday in a Romani settlement in Krompachy during which a police officer on duty is said to have beaten five children. “I consider this incident a failure that must be investigated. Milan Lučanský has promised the incident will be investigated by the Police Inspection. In the demanding conditions that quarantine is causing for people living in impoverished dwellings, it is especially important not just to behave lawfully and with the maximum amount of professionalism, but above all, to behave in a humane way,” the Slovak media reported the President as saying.

The officer is said to have used his truncheon to beat five young children in the quarantined Romani settlement in Krompachy. According to the children’s testimony, he was even said to have threatened to shoot them.

The reason is said to have been that the children were collecting wood and playing outside the quarantine zone. The Romani Union in Slovakia expressed its view of the case yesterday and asked that an independent commission investigate the incident out of concerns that the Inspection Authority at the Interior Ministry is biased.

Andrea Bučková, the Slovak Government Plenipotentiary for Romani Communities, condemned the intervention. The incident was also sharply criticized by the former Plenipotentiary and current MEP Peter Pollák.