Video shows brutal police operation - suspect dies

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Charleroi airport

In Belgium a case of police violence shakes the public. Recordings of the incident from 2018 show a police officer sitting on the chest of an injured man in a detention cell - while an officer dances and shows the Hitler salute. The wife of the man who died as a result of the incident has made serious allegations against the Belgian authorities.

The video recorded by a surveillance camera in February 2018, which has only now been published by the newspaper "Het Laatse Nieuws", shows Jozef Chovanec in a holding cell. According to the report, the Slovak was previously taken from a plane at Charleroi airport because he refused to show his ticket when boarding. The video also shows how Chovanec hit his head against the wall until his face was bleeding profusely.

A policewoman dances and shows the Hitler salute

Several police officers later entered the cell to handcuff Chovanec. When he still did not calm down, the officers returned and held him. One of the officers sat on the man's chest for 16 minutes. You can also see a policewoman dancing in the cell and showing the Hitler salute. Chovanec then came to the hospital, where, according to official reports, he died of a heart attack the next day.

The incident commemorates the death of the African American Georg Floyd in the US city of Minneapolis in late May. He died after a police officer pressed his knee back on his neck for almost nine minutes. The case sparked anti-racism protests around the world.

The widow of the late Slovak, Henrieta Chovancova, published the video against the advice of her lawyers, her defense lawyers said, according to the AFP news agency. Chovancova was not deterred because she was frustrated by the investigation, which has now been going on for two years. "Our client wanted to show these pictures to the world because she has no confidence in the criminal investigation," said one of her lawyers.

She was sad, said Chovancova of the Belgian newspaper "De Morgen". Authorities tried to sweep her husband's death "under the rug as if it were trash that had to go," she said. The Belgian newspaper "Het Laatse Nieuws" first reported on the video.

lmd / AFP