The Regional Prosecutor's Office in Prešov has ordered that a criminal investigation should be launched concerning the police raid at a Roma settlement near Moldava nad Bodvou (Kosice region) in June 2013 due to suspicions that the powers of public officials were misused and that bodily harm was caused, said the regional office spokesperson Marián Spišák.
The investigation into the case has been entrusted to an investigator of the Interior Ministry inspection team from Banska Bystrica. The police operation on 19 June, which was described as a search for wanted individuals and stolen goods, has been criticised by Ombudswoman Jana Dubovcova. Based on her own probe into the matter, Dubovcova claimed that the police violated the principal rights and freedoms of a large number of people in the settlement during the crackdown. According to the ombudswoman, police officers breached several regulations when conducting the operation in the settlement, during which several inhabitants were injured, obliging them to seek medical help. Civil association ETP Slovensko, which provides social services to the residents of the settlement at a local community centre, maintains that even children suffered injuries during the raid. Meanwhile, an earlier Interior Ministry investigation into the controversial raid concluded that the operation was a standard one and that no regulations were violated in the process.
