AI Index: EUR 03/01/92 Distr: SC/CC/PO ------Amnesty International International Secretariat 1 Easton Street London WC1X 8DJ United Kingdom
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INTERNAL (for AI members only) AI Index: EUR 03/01/92 Distr: SC/CC/PO ------------------------- Amnesty International International Secretariat 1 Easton Street London WC1X 8DJ United Kingdom TO: All Sections Campaign Coordinators Press Officers FROM: Western Europe Research Campaign and Membership Department DATE: 11 December 1992 RACIST TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT BY POLICE IN WESTERN EUROPE APPEAL CASES Summary This circular contains the Appeal Cases for use during the action Racist torture and ill-treatment by police in Western Europe. It also contains, in appendix 1, the external Recommendations to governments to be used in this action. Please also refer to the Recommended Actions (EUR 03/02/92) and to the Order Form for Photographs (EUR 03/03/92) and the Focus in the February 1993 International Newsletter. Keywords AUSTRIA / FRANCE / GERMANY / GREECE / ITALY / PORTUGAL / SPAIN / UK / RACIAL DISCRIMINATION1 / TORTURE/ILL-TREATMENT1 / FOREIGN NATIONALS1 / REFUGEES1 / MIGRANT WORKERS1 / MINORITIES / ARBITRARY ARREST / DEATH IN CUSTODY / MEDICAL CONFIRMATION / STRIP SEARCHING / POST MORTEMS / POLICE1 / IMPUNITY / INVESTIGATION OF ABUSES / Distribution As above. Recommended actions These Appeal Cases and Recommendations to governments are for sections and groups participating in the action Racist torture and ill-treatment by police in Western Europe. 2 AUSTRIA In March 1989 two Austrian citizens of Egyptian origin were severely beaten by police officers in Vienna. While in custody, one of the two men was pushed through a pane of glass in a corridor, after which he lost consciousness. On the evening of 22 March 1989, Mustafa Ali and a friend were crossing a road at traffic lights. Mustafa Ali and his friend said the pedestrian signal was green when they began to cross. As they crossed, two police officers ordered them to return to the side of the street and said they had begun to cross when the pedestrian signal had been red. According to their lawyer, the two men were the only non-Europeans among several pedestrians crossing the street and that was an important reason why they were the only ones to be stopped by the police officers. The two men were asked for their identity papers, subjected to racial insults and fined on the spot. Mustafa Ali refused to pay the fine. He was placed under arrest. Mustafa Ali and his friend assert that the police officers then attempted to pull Mustafa Ali in the direction of a building site where there was a four-metre deep pit. The two men resisted this, as a result of which the police officers radioed for reinforcements. Mustafa Ali was placed in handcuffs. The two men describe how the additional police officers began to beat them with truncheons, and continued to do so even when Mustafa Ali, handcuffed, fell to the ground. Mustafa Ali's friend says that he was punched and beaten while three police officers were holding him. Mustafa Ali was placed in a police car where he alleges he was beaten over the head with a truncheon and the handle of a pistol. He was taken to Leopoldstadt police station where his handcuffs were removed but the beating continued until he was pushed through a pane of glass in a corridor and lost consciousness. The police version of events was that Mustafa Ali had thrown himself through the glass. Mustafa Ali was taken to hospital bleeding profusely from his injuries. The examining doctor diagnosed concussion, facial wounds, bruising and tenderness below the eyes and on the cheekbone. He was released from hospital on 24 March. He had to report to the hospital a further nine times to receive treatment connected with his injuries. Mustafa Ali made a formal complaint, but criminal proceedings against the officers responsible were dropped by the Vienna Public Procurator in March 1990 citing lack of evidence. However, a separate inquiry by the Austrian Constitutional Court found that his injuries were caused when an unidentified police officer pushed him into a pane of glass. In February 1991 the court concluded: "Without doubt it would require considerable force to break the thick and relatively small piece of glass. It would hardly be possible to gather the necessary impetus for this in the two-metre corridor." _____________________________________________________________________________________ Amnesty International -- Racist torture and ill-treatment by police in western Europe (AI Index: EUR 03/01/92, November 1992) 3 The court established that a number of police officers were present at the time Mustafa Ali was pushed into the glass. In the light of the Constitutional Court's ruling, the Vienna Public Procurator re-examined the original complaint against the police officers concerned. He concluded, however, that there were insufficient grounds to reopen the case, mainly because no one officer could be identified as the offender. It can only be supposed that the identity of the offending police officer could not be established because the original investigation was not conducted with sufficient vigour. As a result, police officers responsible for Mustafa Ali's ill-treatment have escaped sanction. (In March 1992 Mustafa Ali was awarded substantial compensation for the injuries he suffered.) WHAT YOU CAN DO If what you have read about the case of Mustafa Ali concerns you, turn that concern into action. Write courteous letters in German -- if it is excellent German, otherwise in English or French -- to the Austrian authorities. Points to raise in your letters •Say in your letter that you are always concerned about the violation of anyone's human rights. Explain that you are concerned about what appears to be a wave of racism spreading throughout Europe. Say that you fear that the case of Mustafa Ali in Austria could be an illustration of how racism and ill-treatment by government agents in western European countries could encourage the spread of racism. Explain that you believe that it is vital that governments ensure that their own agents cannot be accused of racially motivated abuses. Failure to do so reflects a lack of political will to deal with the problem in society at large. •Explain that your concern about racism and ill-treatment in Europe has led you to write to a number of western European governments. Say that these appeals are illustrated by cases from each of the countries concerned. Explain that you are appealing to each government to do all it can to ensure that ill-treatment does not occur. •Explain that in all cases of reported ill-treatment, Amnesty International calls for a thorough and impartial investigation, and for anyone responsible for ill-treatment to be brought to justice. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Amnesty International -- Racist torture and ill-treatment by police in western Europe (AI Index: EUR 03/01/92, November 1992) 4 •Express concern at the ill-treatment of Mustafa Ali while he was in police custody in Vienna in March 1989. •Say also that it appears that in the case of Mustafa Ali the investigation by the Vienna police authorities was inadequate. Stress that the Constitutional Court had established that a number of police officers were present at the time Mustafa Ali was pushed into the glass. However, the identity of the offending police officer had not been established by the Vienna police authorities, and no one has been brought to justice for the injuries sustained by Mustafa Ali. •Attach to your letter a copy of Amnesty International's recommendations. Commend these recommendations to the Austrian authorities and say that you believe that Mustafa Ali's ill-treatment would not have occurred if all these recommendations had been adopted and fully implemented. Address your letters to: Director of the Human Rights Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr. Nikolaus Scherk Völkerrechtsbüro Bundesministerium für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten Ballhausplatz 2 A-1014 Wien Austria Minister of Internal Affairs Dr. Franz Löschnak Bundesministerium für Inneres Postfach 100 A-1014 Wien Austria Please send copies of your letters to the Austrian Embassy in your country. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Amnesty International -- Racist torture and ill-treatment by police in western Europe (AI Index: EUR 03/01/92, November 1992) 5 FRANCE September 1989, Paris -- a young black man resident in France was severely beaten by three plainclothes policemen who called him a "dirty nigger" and told him he was going "to pay for all the others". On 5 September 1989 Lucien Djossouvi, a Lucien Djossouvi (c) Claudine Doury Benin national resident in France, was knocked from his motorbike while he was riding through the 18th district of Paris. He describes how a car cut in front of his path and made him crash. The car driver, dressed in civilian clothes, approached Lucien Djossouvi after the incident, subjected him to verbal racial abuse and demanded to see his identity papers. As he had no proof that the man was a police officer, and thus entitled to ask for the papers, Lucien Djossouvi refused to produce them. When the car driver then grasped him by the shoulder he knocked his hand away, remounted his bike and rode off. The driver got back in his car and followed Lucien Djossouvi for about 10 minutes before forcing him to stop once more. This time the driver was not alone. Another car carrying two more men dressed in plain clothes arrived on the scene. Lucien Djossouvi was detained by the three men and handcuffed. When he protested and asked the reason for his arrest he was told that he was a "dirty nigger" and that he was going to "pay for all the others". He claimed that the three men then beat him with truncheons and threw his identity papers and money into a nearby rubbish bin. Passers-by, alarmed at what they saw, were told by the three men not to worry as they were just arresting a drug-dealer.