The publication of a video in which a police officer is seen making the Nazi salute during a brutal arrest, images reminiscent of the George Floyd case in the United States, have shocked Belgium. The event came to light this Wednesday with the publication in a national media of the unpublished video images, an initiative of the victim's widow to denounce the slowness of justice in determining the exact causes of death.

The case dates back to February 2018. A passenger of Slovak nationality, Jozef Chovanec , who was about to board a flight to Bratislava in Charleroi (south), was detained by the police for refusing to hand over his ticket. Chovanec, who fell into a coma after suffering a heart attack during the incident and died days later in hospital, was taken to a cell due to agitated behavior.

In the video surveillance images, viewed by AFP, a man can be seen bleeding profusely from his face after hitting his head against a wall, after several hours deprived of liberty. The police then intervene to control the subject and handcuff him. During this action, one of the federal police officers, six in total, sits on the man , who is lying face down on a mattress, for 16 minutes.

"The behavior of the police is unacceptable"

Some appear to be amused by the situation and a police officer briefly salutes Nazi, according to images from a camera placed in the cell. "The images are shocking, the behavior of the police officers is unacceptable," said Erik Eenaerts , spokesman for Interior Minister Pieter De Crem . In an intervention, he assured that De Crem had discovered the images on Wednesday, as well as the direction of the federal police.

"We have asked the federal police to clarify this incident 100% and carry out a disciplinary investigation in parallel with the ongoing judicial investigation," he added. The agent who made the Nazi salute, meanwhile, "was displaced and sent to a service where she is not in contact with the public," according to Erik Eenaerts.

The number two of the Belgian police temporarily resigns

The number two of the Belgian federal police, André Desenfants , announced this Thursday that

He leaves his duties while the internal investigation into the brutal detention lasts. Desenfants is the head of the General Directorate of Administrative Police (DGA) since December 2017, covering in particular the transport police in Belgium (rail, shipping, aviation).

At a press conference in Brussels, he said he was "deeply affected", "shocked" by the images. "What struck me in the first place were the images I saw (...) Also not having been aware of the content of these videos," he assured. For this reason, he has presented his temporary retirement as "a personal decision" , "accepted by the general commissioner" of the federal police, number one, Marc De Mesmaeker (who was not yet in office in February 2018).

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