Prosecution of Slovak Romany women's sterilisations halted

The Slovak Regional Prosecutor’s Office again halted prosecution in the case of alleged illegal sterilisations of Romany women in east Slovakia, the office’s spokesman Milan Filicko told CTK today.

The prosecution had already been halted once, but the Constitutional Court decided to re-open the case last year.

The alleged unlawful sterilisations were reported by civic activists. The cases stirred up international attention and criticism.

"The new investigation confirmed that the sterilisations were performed with the women’s free and informed consent," Filicko said, adding that the treatment was always applied in the cases where the woman’s health or life were threatened.

Today’s decision cannot be appealed, but the damaged women can turn to the Constitutional Court again.

The Advisory Centre for Civic and Human Rights association pointed to some 140 cases of allegedly unlawful sterilisations performed in the hospitals in Presov, Gelnica and Krompachy, east Slovakia.

The office of the then Slovak PM for ethnic minorities, Pal Csaky, also dealt with the cases, but it dismisses the results of the civic association’s survey.

Suspicions of forced sterilisations of Romany women emerged in the neighbouring Czech Republic and other East European countries as well.

Several Czech hospitals had to apologise for the cases.