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Holland: Deaths in police custody

01 January 1991

Holland: Deaths in police custody
artdoc July=1994

The police sergeant responsible for the arrest and violent
handling of the Turkish man H Kksal, who subsequently died in
police custody in Venlo in early 1993, has been acquitted by the
court. The public prosecutor had demanded a month conditional
imprisonment plus a 1500 guilders fine. The prosecutor's office
held that several medical and pathological investigations
indicated that the man would have died, even if he had been taken
to a hospital when he was found on the street unconscious,
instead of being thrown in a police cell. Still maltreatment with
intent was considered proven by the prosecutor.
On 3 May a 21-year old Syrian-orthodox Mr Paulus Kurt committed
suicide by hanging himself in a police cell in Hengelo out of
desperation because he expected to be expelled and feared for his
life. A day earlier, after intervention from the christian-
democratic faction in parliament the ministry had agreed not to
send the man back to Turkey. The police was informed of this
decision around eleven the following morning, but failed to
notify Mr Kurt who took his life later that afternoon.
Human rights organizations have demanded an investigation of
the Hengelo aliens police department, because several incidents
were reported last year. An investigation by the local social
democrat party produced 18 complaints and concluded that the
department could not be accused of grossly violating the law, but
maintained a very formal attitude and was rude both to foreigners
and Dutch persons. In the report a jurist was cited saying that
they could not be accused of discriminating: `they just hate
everyone who comes from abroad.'

Statewatch, vol 4 no 3, May-June 1994