Slovakia police maltreated Romany boys

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, April 8 (UPI) -- Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak said Wednesday he won't resign despite the release of videotape that allegedly shows police mistreatment of Romany boys.

Addressing reporters after a Slovak government session, Kalinak argued the police mistreatment of six Romany boys was "an individual mistake and not a systematic failure of the police," the Slovak news agency TASR said.

Kalinak said he ordered criminal prosecution of the officers involved in the incident, which occurred March 21 in a police station in the eastern city of Kosice. Nine police officers were suspended because of the incident.

The videotape, taken with police cell phones and a camera, was made public Tuesday on the Slovak SME daily Web site, the Serbian news agency Beta reported.

The video allegedly showed six police officers maltreating six Romany boys. Police on the tape appear to force the boys, three of them minors, to take clothes off and were taped allegedly laughing at the boys' genitals, scaring the boys with police dogs, forcing them to kiss and slap each other in the face, Beta said.

The six boys were taken to the Kosice police station after a police patrol arrested them for allegedly mugging an elderly woman.

The SME Web site said it received the videotape from an uncle of a police officer involved in the incident. The video was also sent to the Slovak Police Inspectorate.