Hundreds protest in wake of man’s death after police officer knelt on his neck

Hundreds of people in a northern Czech town took to the streets in protest on Saturday to commemorate the death of a Roma man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck.

Video footage shows a police officer kneeling on the man’s neck for several minutes during the arrest in Teplice on 19 June.

The man, who has not been named, later died in an ambulance.

Police have said that a preliminary investigation showed no link between the police officer’s actions and the man’s death, according to the Associated Press.

Roma protesters and supporters have rejected that assertion, however, drawing comparisons to the death of George Floyd, whose murder sparked demonstrations around the world.

Mr Floyd, who was black, died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes during an arrest over the alleged use of a counterfeit $20 note.

Chauvin was sentenced on Friday to 22 and a half years having been found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.

In an apparent reference to the Black Lives Matter movement, protesters in Teplice on Saturday held up banners emblazoned with the words: “Roma Lives Matter”, according to AP.

The Roma have long endured racism and discrimination in eastern Europe, with Amnesty International identifying the group as “one of Europe’s oldest and largest ethnic minorities, and also one of the most disadvantaged”.

“Across the continent Romani people are routinely denied their rights to housing, health care, education and work, and many are subjected to forced eviction, racist assault and police ill-treatment,” the organisation says in a report on Roma rights.

Europe’s main human rights body and Amnesty International have called for an independent investigation into the 19 June incident.

Meanwhile, the country’s deputy ombudsman has said she will also launch a separate investigation.