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
Chief of Police, confirmed that all four
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
17
Roma sajtóközpont: Rend
rök és hal
rök zavartak a
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
Hirlap, a national daily newspaper, stated that over
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.
The reported ill-treatment of Kálmán F.
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.
The reported failure of the police adequately to
protect Pál Sztojka, József Lakatos, József
Sárközi, Miklós Rostás, and János Kolompár from
racist violence
Tiszába egy a roma fiút, published on 25 April 2001