Germany: Probation for killing refugee during deportation
01 August 2004
On 18 October, the regional court of Frankfurt sentenced three border guards Reinhold S., Taner D. and Jörg S. to nine-months probation for "bodily harm resulting in death", a charge which usually requires a minimum sentence of one year. On 28 May 1999, they had violently pushed down Aamir Ageeb's head on his knees for around 8 minutes during take-off on a Lufthansa deportation flight, thereby suffocating the Sudanese asylum seeker (see
Statewatch Vol 9 nos 3/4). Aamir's death has been publicised by anti-racist initiatives in their campaigns against deportations, highlighting the violent methods used by German police and border guards to deport refugees.
Ageeb's death is by no means an isolated case resulting from the EU's deportation politics. Mariame Getu Hagos (2003) and the Argentinean Ricardo Barrientos (2002) died in France; in Switzerland, the Nigerian citizen Samson Chukwu was killed in 2001 and Khaled Abuzarifa from Gaza in 1999; in Austria, Marcus Omofuma was killed during his deportation in 1999; in Belgium the Nigerian Semira Adamu in 1998; the Nigerian citizen Kola Bankole died after being injected with sedatives by German police during his deportation in 1993 and in the UK, Joy Gardner was violently killed by police in 1993. This list is not comprehensive. In 1994, the Nigerian government protested to Germany over the deaths of 25 Nigerian deportees over the past three years. The Nigerian embassy said most of the 25 deaths had occurred in police custody with the majority of deportees dying of brain haemorrhages (see
Statewatch Vol 12 no 2, Vol 11 no 3/4, Vol 8 no 5, Vol 4 no 5, Vol 3 no 5).
Given the more than 10 year old track record of deportation deaths and the role of the police in them, it is surprising that the defence in Aamir Ageeb's case succeeded in arguing that their clients had not been sufficiently trained to deport. They claimed that they had not been aware of the potentially fatal consequences of gagging a person by putting a cushion in front of his/her mouth and pushing the head down onto the knees. Hence the mild sentence by presiding judge Heinrich Gehrke, who, although condemning the death and the practice of shackling, found the Federal Border Guard leadership co-responsible for the death for not providing officers with enough practical training or clear guidelines. He therefore applied an exceptional provision under the Criminal Code which allows the defendant to remain under the minimum sentence for a particular charge if an unusual number of mitigating circumstances are found. If he had sentenced the guards to 12 months, they would have had to leave the service, now they will remain in office.
The evidence in this 9 month long trial revealed the brutality of the deportation regime and of the so-called accelerated airport procedure. Before bringing Ageeb to the airplane, officers had shackled him in the torturous "swing" position, in which his hands and feet were tied together behind his back, leaving the victim bent backwards, in this case for two and a half hours. On board, officers tied Aamir to the seat, using eleven plastic shackles, a five metre long rope and four rolls of tape, and put a motorbike helmet on him. Witnesses reported they used a cushion to subdue his screams.
Expert witness Claus Metz from the organisation "Doctors in Social Responsibility" (
Ärzte in sozialer Verantwortung, IPPNW) concluded that some of these restrictive measures, even if used on their own, would have been sufficient to lead to death by suffocation. To push down a person’s upper body with their hands tied in front of their stomach could prevent breathing, he said. Further, witnesses reported that the border guards refused to untie Ageeb's body when he showed no life signs.
After Aamir's death, the public prosecutor in Frankfurt charged the three border guards with involuntary manslaughter on grounds of the medical report which found six broken ribs, bruising<