PS Calls for Interior Minister's Resignation Due to Incident in Kosice

Bratislava, November 13 (TASR) - The opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party wants Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) to leave his post due to an incident that resulted in charges for killing a detained person pressed against a Kosice police officer, PS leader and MP Michal Simecka told a news conference on Wednesday. Simecka thinks that the interior minister should have resigned on his own volition, but as he failed to do so, Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) should dismiss him. He said that if Sutaj Estok remains in the post, they will initiate his ouster in Parliament. "The only thing the interior minister should have done immediately was to take over political responsibility and step down. Without hesitation, without waiting for the outcome of the investigation, without discussing whether it was an individual failure or a systemic problem. However, the minister is making excuses and concealing the facts instead," stated Simecka. Simecka thinks that if the interior minister didn't resign by himself, the premier should draw political consequences against him. "He must take action to send a signal of some basic respect for human life to the public," he said. If this doesn't happen, PS wants to initiate a no-confidence motion in Sutaj Estok in Parliament after discussing and coordinating its action with other opposition parties. An investigator of the Interior Ministry's Inspectorate (UIS) on Tuesday (November 12) pressed charges of manslaughter against the Kosice police officer. According to the Inspectorate, the officer in question, while on duty in early November, inflicted multiple injuries to the head and body of an individual detained while perpetrating a crime, with the detainee succumbing to the injuries in hospital the following day. If found guilty, the officer might be sentenced to 12-15 years in prison. The interior minister expressed regret over the incident that took place in Kosice. He said that a police officer must face the same consequences for his or her actions as any other person if he or she violates the law. In this context, the minister announced an increase in the intensity of preventive training of police officers as well as the preparation of a project of body cameras during raids. ko/mcs