Slovakia will file an inter-state complaint against Belgium with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding the case of the death of Slovak national Jozef Chovanec following his detention at Charleroi airport in 2018, said Justice Minister Boris Susko (Smer-SD) following the Cabinet session on Wednesday, adding that the complaint will be filed by he himself in cooperation with Slovakia's representative at the ECHR.
In August 2020, leaked video footage from a police cell showed Chovanec hurting himself - banging his head on the cell door and bleeding. Afterwards, police officers try to pacify him. The man's face is covered with a blanket, and the police are laughing.
An assessment by Belgian doctors shows that Chovanec's death was caused by severe blows to the head, which swelled his brain. Doctors also concluded that the cardiac arrest was only triggered by an injection from paramedics who tried to calm him down.
In September 2024, a Belgian court handed down a verdict that no one was criminally responsible for Chovanec's death. According to the court's verdict, this is a regrettable confluence of tragic circumstances.
Source: TASR
