Czech Police Inspectorate to reopen case of police brutality in Brno

Police President Petr Lessy is reviewing an internal investigation into the activities of a group of police officers in Brno who have allegedly committed unjustified violence and humiliation against detainees. Lessy made the announcement after Czech Television recently published photographs taken during the officers’ interventions, as well as other details about the group which allegedly sympathizes with the ultra-right. Czech dailies Lidové noviny and Právo reported on Lessy’s plan today, giving the spokesperson for the Police Presidium as their source.

“The information presented is so serious that the Police President decided to have staff of the Police Presidium Internal Monitoring Office check up on it. Should concrete mistakes be discovered, the Police President is prepared to take disciplinary and personnel measures,” Pavla Kopecká, the Police Presidium spokesperson, is quoted as saying in Právo.

One member of the so-called “Delta Team” of police officers was Josef Srnský, who beat and kicked a Vietnamese man in January 2009 while arresting him in an apartment in Körnerova street in Brno. The man, who was suspected of selling drugs, later died as a result of a ruptured spleen. Srnský received a 10-year sentence and is in prison, while his two colleagues who stood by and took no action while the attack was underway are still waiting for the final verdict in their cases. There is very little direct evidence against either Srnský or his colleagues. According to Právo, another witness has contacted the police about the incident recently, but did not actually observe the beatings or violence.

The elite “Delta” unit responded to violent crime in particular. According to Czech Television, the police officers took trophy photographs of those they had arrested lying on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs during their maneuvers. They are said to have regularly behaved in an overly harsh way and a neo-Nazi subtext to their actions apparently cannot be ruled out. The Police Inspectorate’s investigation of the unit lasted 1.5 years, but apparently was unable to prove the officers were involved in disseminating neo-Nazism. While the photographs allegedly document the officers abusing their powers and committing unnecessary violence, reliable witnesses to these events are lacking.

Only one disciplinary punishment has been handed down to a Delta Team member. The new head of the South Moravian Police, Tomáš Kužel, has docked one officer’s pay. There was apparently nothing more he could do, as the statute of limitations had expired in his case. Of the six-member team, two men are still working for the police in an intervention unit in Zlín region. According to the deputy head of police there, Jaroslav Vaněk, the men are doing good work and are some of the best officers on the force.

Vaněk also defends the police officers who were tried over the death of the Vietnamese man and another member of the team who has since quit the force. “I believe that not only the police but also the state services have lost very good officers,” Vaněk told Czech Television. The Inspectorate, however, is of the opposite opinion. In their view, those who were supposed to supervise the work of the troubled unit also committed errors.