Amnesty International Report on Germany, January - June 2002

This is taken from AI's Internet site, any similarities with my person is purely incidental.
The name of the "Betreuer" who has helped keeping my brother for now 30 years in a mental hospital was Steffen.
Biography of Klaus Hagendorf

Our mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of our work to promote all human rights. from AI's homepage.

G E R M A N Y

Death in police custody

Stephan Neisius died allegedly as a result of being ferociously beaten by several police officers of Cologne's First Police Inspectorate on 11 May. He was taken to Eigelstein police station after a domestic argument with his mother earlier the same evening. He was reportedly admitted to hospital later the same day, where he fell into a coma, from which he never recovered. He died on the morning of 24 May after spending 13 days on a life support system.

This death in police custody became a major police scandal after it emerged that two police officers at Eigelstein police station informed a superior office that they had witnessed several colleagues beating Stephan Neisius. They stated that they witnessed five or six police officers surrounding him, as he lay handcuffed on the floor of the police station, repeatedly kicking him in the head, body, arms and legs. Three or four police officers were then alleged to have grabbed hold of his legs and dragged him down a corridor of the station into a cell, where they continued to kick and hit him as he lay on the floor of the police cell. Six police officers were suspended from service, shortly after the allegations came to light, on suspicion of having physically assaulted Stephan Neisius. According to a statement made on 24 May by Cologne's Police President Klaus Steffenhagen, a special investigative commission has been set up under the guidance of Cologne's Public Prosecutor's Office to examine the circumstances surrounding the death. On 27 May AI wrote to Cologne's Public Prosecutor's Office requesting to be informed of the findings of the investigation. Allegations of police ill-treatment In the period under review AI received several allegations of police ill-treatment of detainees, about which the organization contacted the relevant authorities calling for prompt, thorough and impartial investigations. In mid-April AI wrote to the Minister of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia expressing concern about the alleged ill-treatment of a 59-year-old Togolese asylum-seeker, Doviodo Adekou, in the town of Mettmann on 1 October 2001. The alleged ill-treatment took place on the morning of 1 October 2001 at the Office for Foreigners' Affairs as police officers attempted to detain him for the purpose of placing him in pre-deportation detention. Three police officers allegedly grabbed hold of Doviodo Adekou's arms and pulled him face-down onto the floor of the office. Doviodo Adekou alleged that, while he lay on the floor of the office, one of the police officers deliberately punched him in the region of his right eye, causing it to bleed heavily. The police officers subsequently gave up their attempts to handcuff Doviodo Adekou and a senior official at the Office for Foreigners' Affairs reportedly instructed a colleague to call an ambulance, which took Doviodo Adekou to a clinic in the town of Wuppertal. He was treated as an in-patient at the clinic for nine days until 9 October 2001 for a rupture to the covering of the eye which had caused bleeding in the vitreous humour of the eye. Approximately one week before the incident, Doviodo Adekou had undergone a cataract operation on his right eye. However, since suffering the blow to his eye on 1 October 2001, he has reportedly lost all sight in his right eye. AI has not yet received a reply from the authorities about this alleged incident. In mid-March AI wrote to Nuremberg-Fürth Public Prosecutor's Office requesting to be informed of the reason for its decision to terminate criminal proceedings against police officers, who were alleged to have fractured the arm of the then 33-year-old Denis Mwakapi while during his arrest on 23 December 2000. Police officers arrested Denis Mwakapi, who is originally from Kenya, on Luitpold Straße in Nuremberg shortly after 2am after he had been attacked by two white American soldiers. The soldiers believed that the black African was in some way harassing a white German woman, who was in fact his wife, Ursula Mwakapi. They were said to have apologized to the couple after their relationship had been explained to them. During this assault Denis Mwakapi is said to have sustained a swollen upper lip.

Three police vehicles reportedly arrived at the scene very shortly after the two groups of people had begun to disperse. Denis and Ursula Mwakapi alleged that, while two police officers approached the American soldiers and allowed them to leave after checking their identification, the two police officers who approached them treated them in an insensitive manner and paid very little attention to Denis Mwakapi's complaint that he had been assaulted. The police officers arrested Denis Mwakapi after he became agitated and refused to calm down. One of the police officers was alleged to have taken hold of Denis Mwakapi's right arm and forcefully twisted it behind his back in order to effect the arrest, fracturing Denis Mwakapi's lower right arm in the process. The police officers subsequently handcuffed Denis Mwakapi and placed him in a police vehicle in spite of the detainee's repeated requests for a doctor and cries of pain. Denis Mwakapi was then driven to Nürnberg Mitte police station, where Denis and Ursula Mwakapi's renewed requests that Denis Mwakapi be medically examined were allegedly refused. Police officers placed him in an overnight holding cell where he was held until his release at around 10.30am on 23 December 2000.

A medical examination conducted on 23 December 2000 revealed that Denis Mwakapi suffered a fractured arm which required immediate medical attention. His arm was subsequently put in a temporary plaster on 23 December and hospitalized on 26 December 2000, in order to undergo an operation which necessitated the insertion of a metal plate and multiple screws into the bone of his right arm. He remained in hospital until 5 January 2001 and required ongoing out-patient medical treatment thereafter. As a result of his treatment by the police, Denis Mwakapi lodged criminal complaints of physical assault and denial of assistance against the police officers, which were rejected by Nuremberg-Fürth Public Prosecutor's Office on 4 July 2001.