Concerns in Europe January June 2001
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Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001 39
Amnesty International September 2001 AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
individuals in the settlement. In fact, the raid was apparently organized in order to arrest László Vidák who had previously been arrested and charged for theft and similar offences. In October 1999, during an interrogation, he had been severely beaten by police officers. Following his ill-treatment complaint the public prosecutor had brought charges against Major István Nemesi, Aszód Police Chief, and three of his officers. The case against the four officers had been scheduled for a trial on 10 April. Major István Nemesi took part in the 9 February raid during which, according to several people who were interviewed by the local human rights activists, his conduct was amongst the most brutal of the officers involved. In the course of the police raid László Vidák was arrested and it was reported that, although did not resist their action, the police officers severely beat him. László Vidák subsequently spent four days in the State Emergency Hospital for treatment of injuries which he suffered as a result of the beating. An article published on 20 February by the Roma Press Centre, a news agency with a focus on Romani issues, stated that the Pest County Investigation Bureau, in the year 2000, carried out investigations into 79 cases where evidence corroborated complaints of police ill-treatment. Speaking about the police raid of the Romani settlement in Bag, Dr Birtalan Örkény, Pest County Public Prosecutor, reportedly stated that there were sufficient grounds for an investigation as it appeared that the conduct of the police was disproportionate to the objectives of the police action. On 10 April, Budapest Regional Court convicted Major István Nemesi and three of his officers for intimidation and assault of László Vidák, offences which had been “committed out of base motives”. At the hearing, the victim testified about the incident of 1 October 1999. During the interrogation in the police station, although László Vidák was handcuffed, a cord had been wound around his neck and he was tied down to a chair in the police station. A plastic bag was pulled over his head and the police officers hit him on the head, back and legs with a stick and a plastic pipe, ordering him to confess to a theft. The officers denied the charges and stated that they would appeal their conviction. Major István Nemesi was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment suspended for a period of four years. Officer László Soltész was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, suspended for three years; Ferenc Drégelyvári, to a suspended sentence of six months’ and György Nagy to a fine. In an interview after the trial, György Papp, the Gödöll
officers had taken part in the raid on the Romani settlement in Bag. Following that incident he reportedly stated that he did not suspect that the officers had acted abusively, although he had been aware of the pending case. He did not comment on their conviction, and would not say whether the officers would remain on duty, declaring that he
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would have to study the judgment before making any decisions. However, he reportedly stated that the convicted officers would not remain in their present posts. In a television program broadcast on Hungarian TV2 (satellite service) the chief of police stated the following: “These colleagues were doing their job; it happened in the course of work. We are not talking about corruption, or policemen committing acts of crime. They have exceeded their powers.” An article published on 13 April in Magyar
2000 people in Bag signed a petition in defence of the convicted officers. László Jamrik, the Bag mayor, claimed that the people, who “spontaneously started the petition”, were not racist and that their only wish was to live without fear of rising criminality.
Another reported incident of police ill-treatment of Roma took place in Tiszabura, in the Jász-Nagykun- Szolnok County. According to a report of the Roma Press Centre 17 on 14 April 2001, on the outskirts of Tiszabura, two police officers and two fishing wardens who were on patrol for illegal fishing in the Tisza, apprehended Kálmán F. His name is known to AI, but witheld to protect his identity., a 14-year-old boy. One of the police officers reportedly pushed the boy making him fall to the ground, then pulled his ears and forced him into the cold river. Kálmán F. later stated that he had not been fishing and that he did not have any fishing gear with him at the time of the incident. His parents have subsequently filed a complaint about the ill-treatment with the Szólnok Police. The case was then referred to Jász-Nagykun- Szolnok County Bureau of Investigation, which is reportedly conducting an investigation into allegations of ill-treatment and unlawful apprehension against unknown perpetrators. A spokesperson for the Szolnok Police refused to comment on the complaint, and stated that the inhabitants of Tiszabura, many of whom live in poverty, often fish without a permit, and, therefore, police officers and fishing wardens often patrol together. Lászlo Farkas, the head of the local Romani self- government, stated that the victim, whose parents like many other Roma in this region have been unemployed for many years, would be provided with a lawyer. There have been several incidents in the past when fishing wardens, and persons guarding forests or farmland, resorted to excessive force when dealing with Roma who had allegedly engaged in illicit activity.
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