Slovakia will lodge a complaint against Belgium at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in connection with the death of Jozef Chovanec in 2018.
This was confirmed by Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanàr in a conversation with his Belgian counterpart, Maxime Prévot. According to the Slovak news agency TASR, Blanàr spoke with Prévot on Monday during a meeting of European Foreign Ministers.
Blanàr said he had informed Prévot openly and accurately that the Slovak Ministry of Justice would file a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights. This complaint pertains to numerous procedural and practice violations during the investigation into Chovanec’s death. Prévot’s office has confirmed this information.
Jozef Chovanec, a Slovak national, died in 2018 at the Marie Curie Hospital in Charleroi, following a heart attack on 24 February of the same year. The 38-year-old businessman had tried to board a flight to Slovakia but was detained for aggressive behaviour and placed in a cell, where he banged his head dozens of times against a wall.
The man, who was delirious, was then brutally overpowered by several policemen, who firmly restrained him. His head was eventually wrapped in a blanket before he was given a sedative by injection. CCTV footage of the intervention showed officers smiling and a policewoman giving a Hitler salute. A reconstruction of the events took place in September 2021.
