Police officers charged for theft and sexual harassment at reception centre

Two police officers from the Reception Centre for Foreigners at the Regional Centre for Border Affairs North have been criminally charged after an internal inquiry by the Ministry of Interior's Department for Internal Control.

Charges and alleged incidents

The first officer, identified in official documents as B.D., is accused of aggravated theft. Prosecutors say that on 28 September this year, during a search of a temporarily detained woman’s handbag, she found and removed a gold ring, a silver ring and 3,000 denars; those items belonged to the detainee’s mother.

The second officer, B.M., who served as shift supervisor, faces a charge of sexual harassment. According to the case file, on 30 September he entered the room where the woman was held and, through verbal and physical actions as well as electronic communications, expressed sexual desire and engaged in behaviour that resembled a sexual act.

Authorities state that those actions breached the woman’s dignity and caused her feelings of discomfort, insult, humiliation and fear, and that B.M. took advantage of his position in relation to the detained person.

Alongside the criminal complaints, officials will propose disciplinary proceedings against both officers and request their removal from duty — effectively suspension — until the disciplinary process concludes.

Photo: press material from the event