Germany: Expected ECHR ruling on forced use of emetics
01 November 2005
In recent years, Germany has come under increased criticism, particularly by
Amnesty International, for police brutality especially against migrants and black people (see Statewatch Vol. 15 nos 1 & 2). The forcible use of emetics on people suspected of having swallowed drugs, which has led to the death of two African citizens so far, is now being challenged in court. On 9 December 2001, 19-year-old Cameroonian Achidi John died in Hamburg after a public prosecutor ordered police to force-feed him an emetic to make him vomit (Statewatch Vol. 11 no 6). On 27 December 2004, Sierra Leonean citizen Laye Kondé died in Bremen after being force-fed emetics (Statewatch Vol. 15 no 1). After the death of Achidi John, the Berlin State banned the practice, but authorities in Bremen - which in 1991 was the first state in the Federal Republic to use emetics against presumed drug dealers and makes the most frequent use of the method in Germany - and in Hamburg continue to forcefully administer the substance.
On 23 November this year, a hearing started with the ECHR on the case of Abu Bakah Jalloh, a Sierra Leonean citizen resident in Cologne (Germany), who was force-fed emetics upon which he regurgitated a small bag of 0.2182 gr of cocaine. He subsequently received a one-year suspended prison sentence for drug trafficking in 1993. Jalloh's lawyer lodged a complaint on the grounds that the evidence against his client had been obtained illegally and so could not be used in the criminal proceedings. He argued that the police officers and the doctor who had participated in the operation were guilty of having caused bodily harm in the exercise of official duties (
Körperverletzung im Amt).
The appeal was lodged on grounds of Section 136a of the Code of Criminal Procedure (
Strafprozeßordnung), which prohibits the administration of toxic substances as well as on grounds of disproportionality under Section 81a of the Code of Criminal Procedure (as it would have been possible to obtain the same result by waiting until the bag had been excreted naturally). Because all appeals in German courts were unsuccessful, the defence lodged an application before the European Court of Human Rights on 30 January 2000, which was declared partly admissible on 26 October 2004. The outcome of the hearing is expected next year.
Background information on racist police practice and the use of emetics in Bremen by the Anti-Racism Bureau: http://www.antirassismus-buero.de/polizeipraxis/index.html;
See also http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jan2005/brem-j20.shtml; Süddeutsche Zeitung 24.11.05. ECHR Press release: http://www.echr.coe.int/Eng/Press/2005/Nov/HearingGrandChamberJallohvGermany231105.htm