Slovakia: Police officer allegedly kicked and slapped Romani children at a school, lawmaker Peter Pollák says he must be held accountable

A statement from the prosecutor to that effect was reported on by media in Slovakia on 4 March. Peter Pollák, a member of the opposition movement Slovensko (Slovakia), has drawn attention to the case.

The Romani children, aged between 11 and 13, say the officer kicked their legs or slapped them at a school in the village of Strána pod Tatrami. They said two police officers were involved, but just one of them delivered the beating.

Pollák said the incident apparently happened in February in a classroom at the school. The mother of one of the children said at a press conference called by the Slovensko movement that her son’s lip had been bloodied as a consequence.

According to the mother, the officer told the children not to tell anybody what he had done. “It was a math class, they were in class, learning, and suddenly there were 11 children standing out in the corridor. The police officer called those children into the classroom, away from the CCTV cameras. He gave them each two slaps and threw them out,” one of the children’s mothers said.

“We went into the classroom, they asked us what we had done, I said I hadn’t done anything, and he slapped me,” one of the boys told the press conference. One of the mothers told the press: “It was an ordinary day. Everything was normal that morning, we dressed the children and sent them to school. We had no idea what was about to happen. When the children came home, we heard that a police officer had allegedly beaten them. At first we couldn’t believe it and we were taking it with a grain of salt, but then her son came home all bloody.”

Peter Pollák, a member of the National Assembly of the Slovak Republic for the Slovensko movement, said he considers the case an unprecedented crime if the allegations are confirmed. “If all the suspicions which the children and their mothers have told us are confirmed, this will have been a bestial assault by a police officer on defenseless children,” he told the press.

The lawmaker went on to say he intends to submit the case to the Public Defender of Rights and the Children’s Plenipotentiary for independent investigation by those bodies. Former Slovak MEP Peter Pollák, Sr. also commented on the incident, criticizing not just the approach taken toward it by the police, but also the approach taken by the school.

According to Pollák, Sr., “a school cannot hand children over to a police officer to be guarded by that officer. Under no circumstances should a police officer ever be alone with children in a classroom behind closed doors without the supervision of a teacher or a parent. If what the parents are saying is true, then both the police and the school have failed,” he stressed.

According to another lawmaker from the Slovensko movement, Lukáš Bužo, this was a clear abuse of power by the police. “I believe that something of the sort would never have happened to Slovak [non-Romani] children. We will carefully follow this case to make sure nothing of the sort ever repeats itself again,” Bužo said.

Alexander Daško, the Plenipotentiary for Romani Community Affairs, also expressed his view of the incident and has contacted the mayor of the municipality and requested verification of the information that has been publicized. “Any violence, especially if it has been perpetrated against children, is totally unacceptable. The Office of the Plenipotentiary believes this case will be closely investigated and, should the allegations be confirmed, that adequate sanctions will follow,” Daško said.

A spokesperson for the Prešov Regional Prosecutor’s office, Michal Sovič, said the Police Inspectorate has launched a prosecution for abuse of power in the case. This is not the first case in Slovakia of suspicions of police brutality toward members of the numerous Romani minority.

A first-instance court in Slovakia repeatedly acquitted a group of police officers of bullying Romani children at a police station in 2009. According to the indictment, the officers shouted abuse at six boys between the ages of 10 and 16 who were suspected of having injured and robbed an older woman, then forced them to strip and beat each other; the European Court of Human Rights eventually awarded the children compensation.

Non-governmental organizations have previously warned of repeated cases of violence during police raids in areas where Romani people live. In 2021 the Government, under the leadership of what is today the Slovensko movement (named the OLaNO party at the time) apologized for the 2013 police raid on the Romani community in Moldava nad Bodvou and the subsequent prosecution of some local residents for allegedly giving false testimony.