ERRC Submits Complaint Over Police Brutality in Košice, Slovakia
16 January 2025
By Judit Ignacz
The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) has filed a criminal complaint to the Office of Inspection Service against an unknown police officer concerning a disturbing incident in Košice, Slovakia, in 2022, where a young Roma individual was allegedly subjected to police brutality. The complaint demands an independent investigation.
Media reports and a video circulating on social media show a police officer kicking a young Romani male, possibly a minor, at the District Police Department Košice - Old Town on Pribinova Street. The incident, recorded by the perpetrator, shows the Romani minor restrained and defenceless, neither attacking nor resisting. The ERRC argues that this use of force violated international human rights standards, being both unnecessary and disproportionate.
Legal Framework and Response
The ERRC's complaint is grounded in multiple legal frameworks, including the European Convention on Human Rights Article 3, which prohibits torture and inhuman treatment, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 37, protecting children from cruel treatment or punishment. Additionally, Slovak Criminal Code Sections 420 and 326 outline specific penalties for public officials who abuse their authority or engage in torture and inhuman treatment. Based on these provisions, the ERRC maintains that at least one unidentified police officer (likely from the District Police Department Košice) violated multiple laws and calls for an effective investigation to hold the perpetrator accountable.
A Pattern of Police Brutality in Slovakia
This incident is part of a broader pattern and history of police violence against Romani communities in Slovakia. In Poštárka – Bardejov (2020), police used disproportionate force in response to an alleged public order violation that left one Romani woman unconscious and a man with a fractured skull. In Milhost ( 2019), two young Romani men, aged 17 and 18, were beaten during arrest and at the police station, with one officer reportedly spitting into a youth's mouth. One of the youths recalled: “They put us in the car and started to beat us.” The violence extended to physically assaulted family members, with police beating two Romani women in front of several witnesses, fracturing a woman's fingers, and holding a pistol to another's head during the intervention. The pattern continues with Zborov (2017), where video evidence shows Slovak police indiscriminately attacking Roma, using truncheons against children, elderly individuals, and other bystanders. Medical aid was required for three people, including a minor. The ERRC also reported how the police blocked emergency medical services from accessing the scene.
Violent, unlawful raids were conducted in Vrbnica (2015), where police invaded homes, verbally abused residents, and used excessive force, leaving many injured. Nobody resisted. Some of the victims described the brutality: “They put pistols to our heads, I had to hide my children under the bed," said one of them. "They took us out into a field and told us they were going to shoot all the Gypsies," another victim reported. Bratislava IV Municipal Court has recently found that the police action in Vrbnica was discriminatory.
Yet more disturbing cases include the Moldava nad Bodvou and Drienovec raids (2013), where 60-70 special police officers left several Roma injured, including a six-month-old child who was hospitalised, and the Kežmarok District (2012) raid of four Romani communities in Kežmarok District (Stráne pod Tatrami, Huncovce, Podhorany, and Rakúsy) where police conducted searches without arrest or search warrants, and physically and verbally abused residents, including elderly and disabled individuals. Despite apparent rights violations, video documentation captured the aftermath, and witnesses’ reports on property damage alongside physical injuries, the police maintained that the raids were conducted by the law.
The history of violence stretches further back; in 2012 an off-duty municipal police officer shot and killed three Romani individuals (aged 44, 19, and 24) and severely injured two others in the town of Hurbanovo. Despite his explicit intent to "solve the Roma problem" and “finally deal with the Roma in Hurbanovo,” the court rejected racial motivation. Although the minimal penalty under the Slovak Penal Code for this crime is 25 years, the perpetrator received a nine-year sentence – a ruling showcasing systemic bias and institutional failure to perform obligations.
A shocking incident occurred in Košice (2009), where police officers arrested six Romani boys aged 11 to 15 and brought them to the Košice-Juh police station. The boys testified that officers forced them to strip, slap, and kiss each other while kicking them and hurling anti-Roma slurs. Officers recorded some of the abuse and published it on social media. Despite video evidence, the court dismissed racial motives, the case had prolonged delays, and police officers were repeatedly acquitted. The European Court for Human Rights (ECtHR) has awarded compensation of EUR 20,000 for each child. This is apparently the price for human rights violations, undignified, inhuman, humiliating treatment, and torture of Romani kids, causing life-long trauma.
Despite documented evidence, successful prosecutions remain rare, and many incidents of violence, police brutality, and hate crimes go unreported. An extensive record of attacks against Romani people in Slovakia can be found on the ERRC Incident Map.
The ERRC urges authorities to consider this recent incident based on a history of repeated excessive force against Romani communities. The Slovak police forces has shown itself to be institutionally racist, with antigypsyism evident in the ways Romani communities are policed. There exists a culture of impunity, inadequate accountability for excessive force, and racial discrimination within the police concerning abuse and mistreatment of Roma. Institutional antigypsyism has been repeatedly reinforced by stereotypical statements about Roma from Slovak politicians (including the Prime Minister), along with policies that stigmatise Romani communities.
Authorities must conduct an independent and effective investigation whenever reasonable suspicion of inhuman or degrading treatment exists. The ERRC and other domestic and international bodies have stressed time and time again that such an investigation must meet the highest standards of independence, transparency, adequacy, and promptness while ensuring public scrutiny and involvement of victims. As long as this process remains under the influence and control of the police or the Ministry of Interior, then true justice will never be served.
