A total of eleven Slovak MEPs have sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, calling on them to deal with the case of the death of Slovak national Jozef Chovanec in Belgium in 2018. The MEPs did so in response to a decision by the Belgian prosecutor's office concerned not to prosecute anyone in the case, which the group found unacceptable.
The Slovak MEPs pointed out that the opinion of forensic experts, according to which Chovanec died as a result of self-inflicted injuries, has been disputed by another forensic expert, as well as by Chovanec's relatives. The MEPs also pointed to questionable decisions concerning the investigation, including the failure to take into account a witness of Chovanec's detention on board an aircraft.
Dozens of MEPs from various countries and political groups formally called on the European Commission to monitor the investigation into this case as early as in 2020, describing the behaviour of the police towards Chovanec as shocking and inhuman.
Chovanec died in February 2018 after a scuffle with the police at Charleroi airport. According to the Belgian media, he acted belligerently on an aircraft and shoved an air stewardess because he was not allowed to sit in the seat he wanted. The captain refused to take off until the airport police arrived.
According to an expert analysis by Belgian doctors, the cause of his death was brain swelling, which he suffered after repeatedly banging his head against a wall in a detention cell.
In 2020, released video footage from the cell showed the airport police officers kneeling on Chovanec's neck for more than 15 minutes, while one of them gave a Nazi salute during the act, much to the amusement of her colleagues.
Source: TASR
