Although an incident two months ago where the police targeted and shot at the wrong car containing four terrified students was caught on a police video, the investigation team looking into the dangerous police action will, unfathomably, not be admitting the video as part of the investigation evidence, SME daily reports today.
In a classic move to cover up the life-threatening conduct of the police officers, the team from the Ministry of Interior is not allowing the video showing the whole incident to be admitted as evidence because the camera was “only in trial use”. It is not clear if this means that the video recording is therefore not representative of what actually happened or if the camera contains some sort of gremlin that has changed the images, which would clearly make it impossible to be used.
The police shot at the car believing it belonged to a wanted murder suspect, but the car had changed hands years before, something that should have been clear from the vehicle registration records. The lawyer representing the four students, who were lucky to escape a fatal injury, is disgusted at the move and is demanding that they at least be shown the video.
There are two versions of the story, that of the police and that of the students. The police claim that the students refused to pull over, while the students deny this version of the story, saying they stopped with other cars then started to leave again when the police were telling cars to go. Surely the video would prove which version is the right one, but video evidence is obviously not so reliable, whether as evidence or even to prove which testimony bears the truth.
The shooting was just the beginning of their drama, though, as the students were then handcuffed and laid down on the motorway, before being subjected to hours of confusing interrogation, much of it in the rain. The one girl student that was in the car even had to strip naked as a female officer wanted to inspect her clothes, something that should only be done if not possible later. Maybe she liked her fashion sense.
Let’s hope that one day someone’s conscience forces them to put the video on Youtube at least, because admitting it in the case would obviously not be the proper thing to do, given the fact that the camera was not in ‘official’ use at the time.
I wonder if it would be inadmissible if it were footage, were the only prosecution evidence of say,…..’ the general procurator and Fico’ being trussed up, and shot in the street like rabid dog’s ?
I thought the cameras in the police cars were like the cameras in the football stadium just there for show and don’t actually work.
Farce ???…..more like someone left the lens cap on and was not going to take the blame, as is the way in `no fault by me`Slowvakia .
This article just highlights what a total farce from top to bottom this country is.
Police investigating police – only in Slovakia!
I hope the students and their families take this to the EU Criminal court although no doubt to video recording will “accidentally” get lost or destroyed.