Prosecutors have ordered the detention of eight police officers on charges that they illegally detained two men and beat one of them after the pair called them out for not wearing face coverings in a public place.
The police officers were patrolling a Bucharest street at about 1:45 a.m on September 1, 2020 when two men approached them and drew attention to the fact that the officers weren’t wearing face masks.
Masks have been mandatory in all public places for the last six months as a measure to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
In response, seven police officers handcuffed one of the men and drove him to the outskirts of the city. Five officers allegedly beat him for 30 minutes, while the other two stood by and didn’t intervene.
The statement said that the man sustained beatings to his arms and legs and was also beaten on his fingers and soles of his feet.
The man was abandoned there after the incident, the statement said.
At the same time, two other officers illegally handcuffed the other man and shut him inside a police vehicle. They then drove him to the southeast of the city where they “removed his handcuffs and left him on an unlit street,” prosecutors said.
One of the men was subjected to ‘degrading treatment.”
Prosecutors working with the Bucharest Court and the Anticorruption Department are investigating the case.
