125531687_web1_776D3433-E39D-4783-8CCF-D60A47316393_ne2020820134717667

Crowd awaits Trump arrival at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport

Old format, new problem: Biennial legislatures face COVID-19

By RAF CASERT 
 BRUSSELS (AP) — A top Belgian police official stepped aside Thursday after a video of a fatal 2018 police intervention in which a Slovak man died after he was put in detention at Charleroi airport was made public. 
 Pictures show an officer sitting on his chest while the man was in distress and another made an apparent Hitler salute. 
 The government itself reacted vigorously after the video from an ongoing investigation emerged Wednesday and Justice Minister Koen Geens said it was “unseemly and totally shocking."
 Interior Minister Pieter De Crem said that “it is something out of all proportion. The circumstances need to be clarified and an investigation is ongoing.’’ 
 On Thursday evening, the No. 2 federal police official, André Desenfants, stepped aside after he saw the video, a police official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the news had not been made official yet. 
 “This is temporary as the investigation progresses. This is not a resignation," the official said. 
 The Slovak man, Jozef Chovanec, had been prevented from boarding a plane after he didn't show a ticket and was disruptive. In the detention room, the security video shows him repeatedly banging his head against the wall. Once officers came in, they put him on a bed and forcefully restricted his movements, with one officer sitting on him for a long time. Another officer made an apparent Nazi salute during the incident.
 Chovanec's widow complained to Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper, which first published the video Wednesday, that the officers should have cared more about his urgent health needs since he was obviously in distress and needed to breathe. Chovanec died after emergency health officials took him to a hospital.
 Chovanec’s widow says the investigation is taking too long, but Geens said the probe faced delays because of the pandemic and because the defense asked for more investigative actions to be taken.
 The issue has gained extra prominence after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Four former Minneapolis police officers were charged after Floyd, a handcuffed Black man, died after a white officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes on May 25 as Floyd repeatedly said he couldn't breathe.

Top Belgian police official steps aside over 2018 video