Bratislava, Brussels, 2 June 2022: the Slovak Government reached a friendly settlement agreement today with eight Romani men who were brutalised by police officers in 2013 during a police raid on a Romani community in Moldava nad Bodvou The Government will pay €110,000 in non-pecuniary damages jointly to the Romani applicants (plus any taxes due) The case before the European Court of Human Rights was settled out of court after negotiations between the Ministry of Justice and lawyers from the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) who litigated the case “We are glad that the applicants finally achieved justice and we welcome the approach taken by the Ministry of Justice it sadly took nine whole years and several sets of proceedings before domestic authorities and courts for it to be served the applicants suffered persecution by investigating authorities only because they dared to claim their rights and complain about police brutality.”  said Michal Zálešák the ERRC Legal Consultant who worked on the case during the proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights 63 police officers entered a Romani neighbourhood in Moldava nad Bodvou (Slovakia) to search for an individual suspect (whom they did not find) indiscriminately injuring over 30 Romani people including children and people with disabilities The ERRC facilitated legal representation for the Romani people who were injured in their complaints against the police before the Prosecutor’s office The initial investigation by the police inspectorate was short and refused to accept testimony of the injured people After eight months the investigation was reopened irregularities in the victims’ statements were attributed by a psychologist and the investigating officer to their so-called “Roma mentality” which they said is characterised by features as: a lack of self-discipline and an inability to adapt to social standards criminal charges of perjury were brought against some of the Romani people who were beaten by the police The ERRC supported the applicants through the Slovak judicial system up until the Constitutional Court The case was brought before the European Court of Human Rights on 19thMarch 2018 The Government have already issued a formal apology in June 2021 “for the injustice and suffering inflicted on the victims and their families” The Government emphasised that the apology is “not only a human gesture in relation to the victims but also means a commitment for the State to avoid similar failures in the future The apology is likewise a signal that law-enforcement authorities are sincerely interested in regaining the trust of civil society.” Whilst this friendly settlement and the previous apology do not make up for the actions of the Slovak Police in Moldava nad Bodvou (nor the subsequent persecution of victims by the Slovak judicial system) the Government’s apparent willingness to reform which they expressed in the resolution to this case is duly recognised and appreciated by the ERRC The Government have three months in which to pay the settlement to the applicants.  This press release is also available in Slovak Site Map | Privacy | Permissions | Copyright © 2025 ERRC By Jonathan Lee sixty-five police officers armed with batons and dogs raided a Romani community on Budulovská Street in Moldava nad Bodvou dressed more like soldiers ready for a battle than as law enforcement entered the Romani neighbourhood and beat men who according to witnesses made no attempt to obstruct the police At a time when racialized police violence is being protested in cities across the world Moldava nad Bodvou remains a potent symbol of police brutality against Roma in Slovakia It was by no means the first nor the last instance of severe police violence against an entire Romani community in the country The raid was carried out as part of the so-called “Code 100” actions which punitively target Romani neighbourhoods in Slovakia on the pretext of police investigations into criminal activity Moldava nad Bodvou was the first major court case which received such a high level of public scrutiny it represents an opaque and unjust judicial system which has completely failed to provide justice for Roma Not only was the internal investigation into the actions of the police officers a farce finding no wrongdoing on the part of the officers but no further measures were taken after the case went public to ensure such interventions were not repeated in the future six of the Romani residents who were beaten by police are now facing the third year of a trial for false accusations against the Slovak Police It became very clear to the Romani litigants and activists involved in the case that justice would never be found in a Slovak court of law so the case was finally brought to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in 2018 and a coalition of Slovak NGOs involved in prosecuting the police action in Moldava nad Bodvou have sent a letter to the new Minister of Interior The letter asks him to proactively address the case and take measures to ensure that similar failures are not repeated in the future The organisations reminded him that Slovakia has not yet established an independent body to investigate police misconduct something which was long-promised by his predecessors Denisa Saková and Robert Kaliňák the President of the civic association Equity hopes that the Minister will do the right thing without the prompting of the European Court She said "we believe that the new minister will respond positively to our letter and demands [mandatory use of police] cameras will be introduced and a debate on what a truly independent oversight of the state bodies that are allowed to use force should look like We want to believe that the state is capable of self-reflection even without a decision of the European Court of Human Rights.” Meanwhile the clock is still ticking and an imminent judgment is expected from the European Court "The communication between the Strasbourg court and the Slovak Republic has now ended and we are expecting the court will issue a judgment very soon.” said Michal Zálešák the lawyer working on the case on behalf of the ERRC Soon can’t come soon enough for the Roma who have been denied justice for these past seven years A positive judgment from the ECtHR would be a start and provide some measure of justice for these people But real justice means more than compensation Real justice would mean an end to the prosecution of the six Roma who are being accused of lying that police beat them for no reason Real justice would mean the creation of an independent investigative body to make sure that police brutality against Roma is not swept under the carpet by an internal body in the Ministry of Interior real justice would mean taking disciplinary action against those sixty-five police officers who attacked innocent people in Moldava nad Bodvou seven years ago will remain secure in their belief that they can enter any Romani neighbourhood they choose and maim people at will with complete impunity.  NORTHEASTERN HUNGARY — Maybe it’s because of the deep crow’s feet etched into his russet skin but Milán “Igor” Hudák’s eyes look a little defiant as he scans the small Hungarian villages through a car window one early evening in March There is a sameness to the villages — tidy town centers Then come the “Gypsy rows:” clusters of sagging splintered huts where members of the Roma minority live on the edges of town The sunlight fades to lavender as the car continues northeast and passes the invisible border into Slovakia is heading home after a day of high school classes in Sajókaza He is the only one from his Slovakian ghetto of about 800 Gypsies to have ever made it this far in school but Hudák knows that to some it will never make a difference because he is Cigány “The letter ‘C’ is always on my back,” he said through a translator people will behave differently with me face to face but behind my back they’ll still have the same opinions about me.” sterilized and systematically exterminated in Hungary and other European countries they face barriers in almost every aspect of public life which is often darker than that of their countrymen has kept them largely separate and easily segregated Hudák’s village in Slovakia is one of the places where the line between majority society and the Roma is most stark just outside the town of Moldava nad Bodvou the driver makes a sudden turn onto a dirt road that follows the contours of a hill into a different reality disheveled children turn to look at the car as they huddle around a trash can fire On the left are the skeletons of two Soviet housing complexes blackened with soot from wood stoves used for heat and crumbling to reveal the cold To the right are hundreds of shacks built from corrugated steel and wood scraps each big enough for only a few people to stand inside but where families of 20 sleep every night oblivious to the puddles of sewage in which they’re playing A girl of about 13 watches from the sidelines smiling with crossed eyes as she inhales from a baggie filled with glue Even as they dart through the sea of garbage that fills the air with a sickening smell and pretend to shoot each other with arrows who merely peek out of their homes in the fading light “It’s hard to be a Gypsy in my town,” Húdak said Most of the Gypsies in Central and Eastern Europe are Roma an ethnic minority believed to have migrated from India to Europe between the 10th and 11th centuries The Roma are Hungary’s largest ethnic minority and according to the most recent Hungarian census they make up about 3.2 percent of the total population But experts estimate they actually make up at least 7 percent because many Roma won’t self-report their ethnicity for fear of discrimination ranging from derogatory slurs on the playground to deadly hate crimes “Anti-Gypsy (feelings) are so deep-seated in the public imagination and in the institutions that no state is really willing to deal with that,” said Iulius Rostas a Roma scholar and former director of the Roma programs for the American human rights group Open Society Foundations United Nations research indicates that despite high-profile efforts to provide better public services from schooling to health care to the Roma Rostas said that while the central government could do more “If you want something to change when it comes to political power change has to happen also at the local level An opinion poll conducted in 2011 by German Hungarian and British-Swiss political research institutes showed 60 percent of the Hungarian public believes “the inclination to criminality is in the blood of Gypsies,” and 42 percent agreed “it is only right that there are still pubs clubs and discos where Gypsies are not let in.” The poll also showed that sentiment against Gypsies was stronger than it had been in a decade the problem of Roma social exclusion is often referred to as “the Roma issue,” even by some pro-Roma activists Roma face unemployment rates of nearly 85 percent and make up a disproportionate amount of the poor in Hungary and other European nations A 2011 European Union survey found that 55 percent of Hungarian Roma dropped out of school before the age of 16 Hungary now leads the European Union in young Roma attending preschools and kindergartens but United Nations data show a decrease from 2004 to 2011 in Hungarian Roma ages 20 to 26 who have gone on to complete high school During the Communist era from 1948 to 1989 there was an enforced social equality and Roma employment was legally mandatory Activists attribute the high dropout rate to growing school segregation since the fall of Communism while others say it’s the product of a Gypsy culture that does not value education 45 percent of Roma children in Hungary attend class with all or mostly other Roma students while 39 percent were in classrooms of both white and Roma children and 16 percent had mostly white classmates schools can become unofficially segregated by non-Roma families moving their children to less diverse schools teachers separating classrooms by race and as the direct result of the housing separation that already exists About 60 percent of Roma in Hungary live in secluded rural areas This segregation depletes the quality of education the Roma receive and there are virtually no jobs to be had in Hungary without at least a high school diploma Facing an aging population and a declining birthrate the Hungarian government offers financial benefits to those with multiple children and many use these benefits to scrape by without a secondary education dropping out has become the norm in many Roma communities where not a single resident has finished high school Tibor Derdák is the principal of an integrated private school that receives funding from Amnesty International located on the edge of a Roma ghetto in Sajókaza only three Roma here had high school diplomas but it’s impossible for this population (to graduate),” he said sitting in an empty classroom while his students played outside more integrated towns there are more Roma who do graduate deteriorating rows of houses without plumbing or electricity previously occupied by miners when there were more industrial jobs to go around far from any organized structure,” he said “They can’t believe it’s worth it to be good in school because they don’t have positive experiences And no one in their big families has these experiences an average man in these ghettos has at least 30 or 40 cousins and no one among these 30 or 40 cousins has ever gone to high school.” a young boy of about 7 crafts a makeshift cigarette by combining the tobacco from butts he finds on the ground and rolling it up in paper nonchalantly puckers his lips around his creation and strikes a match Because life expectancy for Roma is short — most in Sajókaza die between the ages of 40 to 60 — life also tends to move fast and contributes to the school dropout rate The government asserts it has made significant strides in Roma education since the fall of Communism It has instituted limited programs to help Roma women get vocational training and Roma students to get into universities And the government takes very seriously its enforcement of Hungary’s law prohibiting school segregation deputy secretary of social inclusion within the Ministry of Human Resources it’s quite obvious you won’t find anyone else in the schools but Roma,” she said as she sat in a tiny wooden chair at an integrated preschool in the village of Ároktő “In places where Roma and non-Roma children get educated together — there to ensure they work according to the anti-segregation laws.” Integrated preschools are one of the keys to lasting integration because they allow children of both ethnicities to interact at early ages and help convince Roma parents that their children can succeed in school “The problem of integration is actually the problem of the lack of education,” she said and those with no jobs and who live on benefits won’t be accepted by the wider Hungarian community “It’s not a cultural problem,” Langerné continued Because the Roma culture is a real value and people in wider society like it : Gypsy music is the poverty and those things that are caused by poverty: dirty people recently graduated from Principal Derdák’s school and is now attending college to become a teacher She has a non-Roma boyfriend who is part of a six-piece Hungarian oldies band Although they've been dating for four years she said she stills feels hostility from other band members “It’s frustrating because I don’t care what other people think but (he) does,” she said through a translator Bogdan lives away from the Roma ghetto in a house for teachers close to the center of town but she is still reminded of the color of her skin every day “It’s enough to just go outside; they look at me a certain way,” she said “People assume I stole my clothes or I work in western Europe as a night worker.” Bogdan and her boyfriend went to a local hospital and a middle-aged white man began shouting at her We need Hitler back; he needs to finish the job,’” Bogdan said but when Bogdan and her boyfriend tried to file a complaint a college-educated Roma president of a local Buddhist organization said he tries not to let the little things get to him But he notices that a security guard follows him every time he walks into a store Whenever he offers a woman a seat next to him on the subway the store employees told him he probably couldn’t afford it But what worries him most is the behavior of the police on the streets and Hungary’s extreme right party Orsós said he was severely beaten by police while attending a gay pride parade in Budapest He said he frequently can’t walk down a main street in Budapest’s Eighth District where there is a higher concentration of Roma frisked and asked to present his ID by police Roma pedestrians in Hungary are three times more likely to be stopped by authorities than white citizens found in 2001 that about 33 percent of Hungarian prison inmates reported themselves as Roma although they only make up around 7 percent or 8 percent of the population “They make women take their bras off on the street to make sure they have nothing in there,” Orsós said through a translator “It’s not actually about weapons; in Hungary guns are basically impossible to get the government official from the Department of Social Inclusion conceded Roma-police relations could be improved The government has instituted a program that brings Roma intellectuals to police stations to educate officers in Roma culture and to promote understanding the head of the Roma program at the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union said that program and the addition of a hate crimes special unit within the Hungarian police are designed primarily to score political points Authorities “mostly express their views when anti-Semitic incidents happen so in these cases they usually publish a report and express that they’re very against these crimes,” she said “When it comes to racist crimes against Roma then usually there is silence on the part of the government or very weak speeches we see the under-classification of racist crimes.” The civil liberties union is representing four Roma men who were seriously beaten in the summer of 2014 by uniformed likely members of an extremist paramilitary organization only one has been identified and caught by police “It is visible that the police could not or didn’t want to investigate effectively,” she said A 2014 study by Harvard University found a pattern of hate crimes against the Roma in Hungary since 2009 The report warns that the increased anti-minority rhetoric central consolidation of power and a general climate of exclusion are classic pre-determinants to genocide recorded 61 racially-motivated attacks against Roma in Hungary that resulted in the deaths of seven adults and two children Few of these attacks were classified as hate crimes Ulrich Bunjes is the special representative of the Secretary General for Roma Issues in the Council of Europe an intergovernmental organization consisting of 47 member states promoting human rights and democracy He said the rise of right-wing extremism politics in Hungary is directly related to the reported increase in hate crimes “Things are deteriorating in Hungary; they've been deteriorating for almost 10 years now in many areas certainly in the area of hate speech and hate crimes against Roma in Hungary,” he said “The central government is quite cooperative,” Bunjes continued “The progress at the local level is often still very difficult and sometimes very violent because right-wing extremists and small militia gangs are really making life for Roma hell at a local level and police are usually helpless or not interested to intervene.” An extreme right-wing political party called the Jobbik has recently gained momentum in Hungary although it was widely dismissed at its start in 2003 In the most recent parliamentary elections in 2014 the Jobbik party received 20.5 percent of the vote an increase of 4 percentage points from the 2010 elections Similar parties have gained popularity in Poland and Slovakia Prominent members of Jobbik have made public anti-Semitic and anti-Roma comments including dismissing the Holocaust as a “scam,” calling for an assessment of the number of Hungarian Jews to determine “national security risk” and referring to the Roma community as a “biological weapon.” The Jobbik also has repeatedly used the term “Gypsy crime” in its campaign slogans suggesting that Gypsies have a crime problem specific to their demographic A Jobbik party spokeswoman declined an interview request and did not respond to a follow-up request for a statement “The way Jobbik talks about Gypsies is the way the Nazis talked about Jeada before the Second World War; the rhetoric is the same,” said Orsós “There was a certain racism and prejudice inside people’s heads anyway you wouldn't talk about it in polite society But Jobbik has made it acceptable — and not only acceptable but actually necessary to win votes.” Roma activists said Jobbik often scapegoated minorities during the 2008 financial downturn and that the party is further benefitting from nationalistic rhetoric as the refugee crisis divides Europe over the issues of immigration and integration they also note that as the party has gained political clout “The rhetoric of Jobbik and the paramilitary organizations has gotten a little bit less violent and less racist which doesn’t mean they're not racist anymore,” Jovánovics said “I think they really want to win the next election.” Zsolt Tyirityán is a self-identified racist “Organizations like the Ku Klux Klan or other nationalist movements in the 1930s and ‘40s — all they were doing is basically defending their own cultural integrity their cultural identity,” he said through a translator in a quietly bustling Hungarian café known as a meeting place for right-wing extremists “Every nation and every identity has to defend themselves this balance of interests has been tipped against the majority.” Tyirityán is the leader of a paramilitary group called Betyársereg which roughly translates to “Outlaw Army,” although Tyirityán doesn’t like the English name It implies his group operates outside laws and morality “We want to form the core of a strong nationalistic defense movement,” he said “We represent the majority of Hungarian public opinion which is the reason why we are extremely popular The extreme liberal media makes all sorts of false accusations about us They engage in libel; they label us terrorists In the eight years of this group's existence the police have never been able to identify criminal activity on our part Tyirityán said he is good friends with Gabor Vona and the two support each other despite the fact that Vona must publicly distance himself from paramilitary groups Betyársereg is considered one of the most extreme paramilitary organizations in the country Christian white men with combat or martial arts backgrounds The group is notorious for patrolling Roma neighborhoods shouting about Roma demise and hurling stones through windows the Roma have been unable or incapable of integrating,” Tyirityán said “If a member of the national Hungarian community is harmed in some way or there is a crime committed against them we go to where it happened or where the crime was committed with a large group of people And with our presence we make sure the police take it seriously and help the person who is harmed.” In response to criticisms that Betyársereg intentionally incites terror in Roma areas Tyirityán said it’s his duty as a white man to draw attention to “social injustice” against his own people “If you mean that we’re causing fear among people who had in previous weeks committed a string of crimes against Hungarians wants to be a strong presence throughout Hungary but has no ambitions beyond the country’s borders the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S defended the country’s efforts to halt radicalism He said the Hungarian government recently passed a law banning paramilitary organizations and he pointed to a 2011 constitutional amendment that outlaws hate speech and allows minority victims to sue for damages we had our fair share of whispering in the pubs over a beer So we wanted to be open about (free speech),” he said “We had to see that this can be abused also … Now there is this thing called the ‘dignity of a community.’ We don’t need to name somebody by name You can just speak out against the community in hatred … and this is a very important change.” judicial precedent has yet to be set for the enforcement of the amendment “Extremist positions and opinions exist in every country,” he added “There is nothing I can do because it’s in every country What is our task — either through good legislation or with your personal example — (is) to show what is the right way.” One of the most prominent nationalist paramilitary groups was disbanded via court action by the Budapest Chief Prosecutor’s Office in December 2008 for intimidating Roma and violating their rights the New Hungarian Guard formed the next year Orsós knows being a Roma Buddhist is as about unusual as it gets He said he chose his faith for its emphasis on charity and spiritual equality – and because of what he sees as discrimination in Christian and Hindu religions Orsós takes the long view of discrimination against the Roma He said the problem has its roots in Hungary’s development as a nation “We’ve always been either a dictatorship or a monarchy; we don’t have a history of democracy We joined with Nazi Germany — and the old people who were alive at the time who supported this decision many of them are still alive — and then we have 45 years of a Communist dictatorship And then we tried democracy for 20 years but this isn’t really working out “It’s not that 2.5 million people suddenly arrived in Hungary who wanted to vote for Jobbik,” Orsós said Hungarian identity is inseparable from its history which breathes from its cobblestone streets like a persistent whisper because they are everywhere: the soulless Soviet-style buildings that interrupt the otherwise romantic streets the Holocaust-era cattle car train tracks in the middle of a newly constructed bar a spice imported during the Ottoman occupation referring to the rest of the population as “Hungarians,” despite the fact their families Hudák said he feels his identity every moment of his life We know some things Hungarians learn in schools Hudák said he will never move from his Slovakian Gypsy shantytown but he smirks as he gives an answer it seems he’s given a hundred times: “This is my family.” “There are many people around me who don’t understand anything in the world and they need me to inform them about the world,” he said “Everyone asks this question because they don’t understand why.” The sun finally sets on the ghetto after a flare of fiery orange and somewhere nearby children begin singing in Gypsy dialect The notes can be heard for only a moment before they are absorbed by the walls of the huts and the dirt hillsides that surround this place the Gypsies call home Editor’s Note: “Gypsy” can be considered a pejorative term and “Roma” is usually suggested as a less offensive alternative the reporter uses both terms in the story because “Roma” also only refers to those who belong to the ethnic group that originated in India Discrimination in Europe is not limited to the Roma but extends to whites who practice a similar culture and use similar dialects Two villages in two countries reveal the difficulties Roma face in light of a lack of education, a history of discrimination and prejudice. Life is different for Hungarian Muslims after tens of thousands of migrants passed through the country. Families in a poor Miskolc neighborhood were evicted after an amendment to a decree on publicly subsidized low-income housing. After thousands of refugees passed through the region on their way to Europe, the popular route was closed to curb migration. Hungarian views on refugees, politics and identity are inescapably colored by the nation’s conflicted past. The number of migrants passing over the Hungarian border has dropped, but the impact of refugees within the country remains. Roma say that prejudice, ranging from derogatory slurs on the playground to deadly hate crimes, is a fact of daily life. The Syrian crisis forced the European Union to alter its 30-year-old 'Schengen' policy of passport-free, borderless travel. A fractured left-wing and struggling far-right Jobbik party pose little threat to Prime Minister Orban's administration. Migrants who crossed illegally into Hungary face an uncertain future after the deportation process in the country's courts. In Roma schools and villages, high drop-out rates and a lack of education lead to troubled futures for youth. Despite a lack of government support, activists in Budapest try to combat drug use and the spread of disease. A legislative package pending before the Hungarian Parliament would discourage refugees and asylum seekers from staying in Hungary. The few refugees granted asylum by the Hungarian government often struggle to assimilate and find acceptance in the country. Some Hungarians embraced incoming migrants, while others were dismayed by being on the frontlines of the movement. Hungarian Jews grapple with commemorating their heritage and overcoming anti-Semitism they still face in their country. Cronkite News is the news division of Arizona PBS. The daily news products are produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University Privacy statement Sign up for daily headlines This work is covered by a Creative Commons license The perjury charge whom some Roma – allegedly beaten by police – from the settlement in Moldava nad Bodvou face The evidence that led to a criminal prosecution against a group of Roma from the Budulovská settlement in Moldava nad Bodvou for perjury was acquired in a legal fashion There was a legal cause to initiate the criminal prosecution and the pressing of charges the General Prosecutor’s Office stated on July 2 The case involved the police crackdown in this settlement in the eastern Slovak town of Moldava nad Bodvou (Košice Region) in 2013 The GPO also pointed to a decision of the Constitutional Court according to which the extent of procedural actions suggests that the “law-enforcement bodies took a particularly meticulous approach towards shedding light on the circumstances surrounding the case” The Roma face charges of making false accusations against the police by claiming that police officers attacked them for no reason and gave them a severe beating According to the internal affairs team of the Interior Ministry (police also fall under this ministry) the police officers did not violate the law during their crackdown on June 19 international human-rights’ organisations like Equity Amnesty International Slovakia and CVEK disagree with these findings and dismiss both the conclusions drawn by the internal affairs team the approach of the court and prosecution of the Roma claiming that the beaten victims are now being portrayed as the perpetrators operated by the Maintenance & Repair Services (MRS) at MOD-owned KONŠTRUKTA-Defence in Moldava nad Bodvou has undergone full refurbishment worth €583,095.67 – as part of efforts to get the facility ready for its role in the SVK Army's equipment programmes while bringing in a host of technological upgrades The refurbishment of the 2,552m2 hall space included the Hydraulic Systems Manufacturing & Repair Sections the facility was completely refitted with new electrical wiring and fittings The work also involved replacing the entrance gates and servicing the gas pipes the Central Repair Workshop in Moldava nad Bodvou is designed to conduct the inspection maintenance and repair of the RM-70 MODULAR Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and the Zuzana 2000 and Zuzana 2 155mm Self-propelled Gun Howitzers (SpGH) there are plans to make best use of the facility's manufacture and repair capacity in the delivery of the SVK Army's PATRIA 8x8 Armoured Modular Vehicle (AMVXP) Programme Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď said: “Getting Slovak companies involved in the modernisation projects requires adjustments and upgrades to their infrastructure and equipment on completion of the extensive refurbishment works to the Maintenance & Repair Services (MRS) Workshop Hall in Moldava nad Bodvou investments are already being made into improving the technological level of the manufacturing and repair processes at MRS.” The European Court for Human Rights recently ruled in favour of two of the Roma injured in the Moldava raid seven years ago How the Budulovska locals describe the raid and how the police inspectorate concluded it What the ECHR ruling means for Slovak courts and where the case may go from here What changes is the current interior minister promising and what the prime minister says about the ruling Róbert Rybár was dragged out of his house He remembers receiving five or six kicks in his ribs That is how he has repeatedly described the treatment he received from police officers during the June 2013 police raid that Slovakia has since come to know as the Moldava Raid Even though several people were left injured after the raid the investigation did not find any violation of the rules of police actions On the pretext of searching for seven men for whom they had arrest warrants 63 police officers raided the settlement called Budulovská in the eastern-Slovak town of Moldava nad Bodvou on June 19 Several persons were injured and 15 Roma were taken to the police station then Police Corps president Tibor Gašpar backed the local police officers and stated that the Roma had been treating the police with more respect since the raid Budulovská locals did not agree with his assessment “It was all unnecessary violence,” Rybár told the press On the day of the police raid they came to us they entered our houses without permission and they started beating us head-on.” Charges were brought against some of the police officers Rybár and five more of the beaten Roma were later accused of false testimony against the police officers Eastern-Slovak courts have been dealing with their cases On September 1, 2020, Rybár and his neighbour from Budulovská, Roland Dančo, won their case against the Slovak Republic in the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR). The court upheld the view of the plaintiffs that they suffered inhuman treatment and that the authorities failed to conduct a proper investigation into that ill-treatment The court awarded €20,000 to each of the two men as non-pecuniary damage and €6,500 jointly in respect of costs and expenses Some see the ECHR ruling as a game-changer in the case stated former police investigator Jozef Šátek “The ruling talks about the entire politics-police-prosecutor system carried out and approved the brutal police raid then intentionally slowed the investigation of it and finally manipulated the investigation results to such an extent that it aimed the blade of criminal law against the victims accused them and charged them,” Šátek wrote on his Facebook page The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.skSubscribe now for full access Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail) PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk Police officers are examined by their colleagues The case of the police raid in Moldava nad Bodvou in June 2013 has not ended even after the Interior Ministry’s inspection conclude that the police officers who raided the local Roma settlement did not break the law In June 2013 the Police were purportedly seeking seven men with outstanding warrants They did not find any of those men but according to eyewitnesses violence ensued and 15 other Roma were taken to the police station. Several of the Roma were injured and at least one of them claims to have undergone two further severe beatings at the police station itself A second man alleges that he left the station bleeding from his rectum The inspector ultimately upheld the police officers statements and stopped the ongoing prosecution in two of six charges in late March while in November he halted the prosecution in the remaining four charges Legal representatives of the aggrieved Roma have turned to the regional prosecutor's office in Prešov which has already rejected the complaint in relation to four charges and now is dealing with the remaining two In case of the first four charges the lawyers approached the Constitutional Court It is not clear from the decision which evidence the inspector used to come to the conclusion that the use of coercive means was lawful according to Vanda Durbákova of the Centre for Civil and Human Rights who is representing two residents of the settlement in the dispute She objects the fact that police officers are examined by their colleagues the inspector unreasonably took the side of the examined police officers say the lawyers,” Durbákova told the Sme daily.