The European Court for Human Rights (ECtHR) has awarded compensation of EUR 20,000 each to the six Romani children who were abused in 2009 when the officers at a police station in Košice, Slovakia forced them to slap each other; they also have the right to be compensated for the costs of bringing the proceeding against the police. News server Romea.cz has been informed of this development by the Center for Civil and Human Rights (Poradňa pre občianske a ľudské práva), which provided legal representation to the victims.
According to the ECtHR, the domestic courts took a disproportionately long time to review the case. Moreover, the domestic courts did not sufficiently review the allegations of humiliating treatment by the police and did not sufficiently review the racial motivation claimed in the indictment. The ECtHR also found that the Constitutional Court, to which the plaintiffs turned more than once, had been ineffective in its proceedings. “The European Court for Human Rights has finally brought these victims justice. This is an exceptionally important judgment that sends a clear signal to the Slovak courts that when proceedings are conducted in this way, they cannot be considered effective. The European Court also highlighted the work of the detectives and prosecutors, who responded quickly to the case, investigated it sufficiently and brought it to court,” attorney for the victims Vanda Durbáková said.
