The Belgian Ministry of the Interior promised Thursday, August 20 to shed light on a police intervention “unacceptable“To control a passenger in 2018 at Charleroi airport (south), during which an official in uniform gave a Nazi salute, a spokesperson told AFP. Police No. 2 announced that he was leaving his duties for an internal investigation following these comments.
A man of Slovak nationality, Jozef Chovanec, fell into a coma after cardiac arrest during the procedure and died a few days later in hospital. The case dates back to the night of February 23 to 24, 2018, when this passenger about to board in Charleroi for a flight to Bratislava was arrested by the police and placed in cell due to agitated behavior.
Hitler hi
It resurfaced on Wednesday because an unprecedented video sequence was broadcast by a Belgian media, at the initiative of the widow of the victim denouncing the slowness of justice in determining the exact causes of death. On these CCTV images, viewed by AFP, we can see the man bleeding profusely from his face after banging his head against a wall, after several hours of deprivation of liberty.
It follows an intervention to control and then handcuff him, during which one of the officials of the federal police (six in total intervene) sits on the man flat on his stomach on a mattress. Some seem to be amused by the situation and a policewoman, standing slightly behind, briefly gives a Hitler salute, still according to these images from a camera placed in the cell.
«Shocking images»
«The images are shocking, the behavior of the police is unacceptable“Erik Eenaerts, spokesperson for Interior Minister Pieter De Crem, told AFP. He assured that Pieter De Crem, in this post since December 2018, had discovered these images only on Wednesday, just like the direction of the federal police. “Federal Police have been asked to make 100% clarity on this incident and to conduct a disciplinary investigation alongside the ongoing judicial investigation.», Added the spokesperson.
According to the Charleroi prosecutor, Sandrine Vairon, an investigating judge had been seized of the investigation in the wake of the complaint with the constitution of civil party filed on February 27, 2018 by the widow of Jozef Chovanec. The investigation was opened for “assault and battery“Because at that time Jozef Chovanec was not dead, said Sandrine Vairon to AFP. “It’s a fact, sir is deceased, there will be a legal requalification it’s obvious“, Added the prosecutor, without specifying if the police officers had already been worried in the investigation. As for the policewoman author of the Nazi salute, “it has been moved and put in a service where it does not come into contact with the public», According to Erik Eenaerts.
“Shocked”, the n ° 2 of the federal police resigns
André Desenfants, number two in the Belgian federal police, announced that he was temporarily leaving his post, the time of the internal investigation. During a press conference in Brussels, he said to himself “deeply affected», «shockedBy the images of the intervention broadcast Wednesday which had the effect of relaunching the case. “What shocked me was first of all the images I saw (…) it was also not to have been aware of the content of these video tapes», He affirmed.
He presented as “a personal decision“Its temporary withdrawal,”accepted by the commissioner general”Of the federal police, the number one, Marc De Mesmaeker (who did not yet hold the post in February 2018).
– .
