Military Police Train in Personal Protection in Lest

Lest, April 7 (TASR) – A total of 55 members of the military police along with their colleagues from the Czech Republic and employees of the Slovak Interior Ministry’s Office for the Protection of Constitutional Officials and Diplomatic Missions are undergoing training on how to protect VIPs at the training centre in Lest (Banska Bystrica region), TASR learnt on Thursday.

The ‘Bodyguard’ exercise concerns Slovakia’s preparations for its upcoming presidency of the EU. “Our military police will be able to tap into the experience from this exercise not only during the presidency, but also in relation to international crisis management and various foreign missions,” said Defence Ministry State Secretary Marian Salon at a briefing in Lest on Thursday.

Military police chief Milan Hamar underlined that current developments in Europe clearly indicate the importance of such exercises. “In addition, the military police have been equipped with new weapons and technologies, and so we need to practice their deployment,” stated Hamar.

Members of the press on Thursday were shown a video presentation of the past few days of the exercise. This included how officers would proceed when protecting a VIP under physical attack, when dealing with a sniper and when faced with a more comprehensive attack.