independent race and refugee news network


	Topics

Government policy

Policing and criminal justice system

Violence and harassment

Asylum seekers and refugees

Education

Media

Employment

Extreme-Right politics

Features

Statistics and definitions

Quiz

Schools against deportations

Reclaiming the struggle

Far-Right in Europe

Investigation into Roma death in custody criticised

By Liz Fekete

1 October 1996

AI has criticised the police investigation into the death of the 20-year-old Roma, Martin Cervenak.

According to police, Cervenak died of a brain haemorrhage following his arrest on 8 June 1994 in Horsovsky Tyn. But AI says that the official investigation failed to interview witnesses other than the police officers involved in Cervenak's detention and the superior officer in charge of them. Detainees present in the police station's waiting room could have given evidence which would also have covered allegations of ill-treatment during interrogation.

Separate rules for policing Roma

AI has also criticised the Ministry of the Interior for issuing special instructions regarding police searches of Roma dwellings. 'The very existence of separate rules for the conduct of law enforcement officers towards an ethnic minority' is a 'violation of international human rights treaties ratified by the Czech Republic'.

AI Concerns in Europe: July-December 1995

privacy | using our content | advertising | support us