original source: https://thecaravan.org/node/2250
On the 5th anniversary of the brutal death of Oury Jalloh more than two hundred demonstrators remembered in Dessau all those murdered by state and non-state racist powers.
On the 7th of January 2005 Oury Jalloh burnt to death in his empty cell in the Dessau Police station. He was found still lying on a fireproof mattress, hands and feet chained to the floor.
In the aftershock of the cruel circumstances of Oury Jalloh’s death and the audacity of the state authorities to claim that it had been suicide the “Initiative in Remembrance of Oury Jalloh” - demanding clarification, justice and compensation, was founded. With the many years of experience of The VOICE Refugee Forum and the KARAWANE-network the campaign developed called for a rally against racist violence and police brutality. They also sought to collect together different but related incidents, such as the shooting of Dominique Koumadio in Dortmund.
The uncompromising stance against all attempts to relativise and the continuation of the protest led to the process against two police officers. But that process ended in their acquittal and the loss of any resemblance of the rule of law. It also led to the legal process in the constitutional court and that court’s decision on the 5th anniversary of Oury Jalloh’s death to invalidate the original verdict from Dessau and to reopenning of the case.
This is not a “victory for the rule of law” as this decision from Karlsruhe has been hailed from all sides. This is the attempt to reinstate the semblance of the rule of law that had been lost so completely in Dessau. The court “had not had the opportunity to conduct what is called a legal process in accordance with the law”. Police officials appeared to have given witness “unscrupulously and dimwittedly” incorrectly and incompletely. The acquittal of both accused persons were not based on anything that “we had found out about the events of the 7th of January 2005 in the police station Dessau”. – “I can’t be bothered to say anything more about this shit” (sic) were Judge Steinhoff’s last words before he closed the proceedings. (translated quote from the Sueddeutsche Zeitung)
Should the legal process in Dessau, begun on the 27th of March 2007, substantiate the unproven and self-contradictory claim that it was suicide, then the end of it, 21 months later on the 8th of December 2007, will confirm the concept that “Oury Jalloh - that was murder” . The initiative had called the legal proceedings a farce months before already. And it had withdrawn from the proceedings and reinforced street protests.
The call for and ongoing preparations to form an international independent investigation committee, the public awareness campaign by the Initiative in Gedenken an Oury Jalloh through protest actions, the photo exhibition “Break the Silence” and also good work done by lawyers have created the pressure under which the federal courts in Karlsruhe posed the question – for the first time – how can someone burn to death without crying out?
The decision demanding a revision of the verdict however starts from the same premise that holds that Oury Jalloh burnt himself to death. This version of events had not arisen from the investigation. In fact, it was this version of events that directed the investigation. During it evidence disappeared and/or was destroyed. Judge Steinhoff had called this a collection of “failure, bad luck and slip-ups”.
There was never supposed to be a court case. Two years later and only after intense pressure by the “Initiative in Remembrance of Oury Jalloh” and growing public interest a court case was initiated. Being fixed on the suicide thesis it came to a bizarre picture of the constitutional state: By the help of police psychologists, trainings for the behaviour during testimonies, and police internal instructions the attempt was made to provide a plausible version to the judges of what happened after the fire begun. But due to the agreement on the absurd Version of what must have happened that didn't succeed in spite of all the provided assistance. The whole procedure from arresting Oury Jalloh until the fire brigades arrived as the police reported it was full of contradictions, false testimonies, silence and lies. So in the end of the more than two years delayed trial it was shown again: Oury Jalloh-that was murder! The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” in a current article can only annihilate the -to the reader- obtrusive question if it was murder by stating wrong “facts”:
Because he had no identification he was locked in a cell and chained to a bed even though he had almost three per mil alcohol in his blood. How he succeeded to burn his “fire proof” mattress with a lighter, that he was not allowed to have, remained unexplained. Due to the surveillance cameras it is assured that it was not a directed killing. But for sure there was gross negligence, dismissive behaviour and attempted cover-up on many levels (translated from faz.net)
There are no recordings from surveillance cameras that show how the fire started nor who could have been in the cell where Oury Jalloh was chained on the floor. Neither are there recordings about how Oury Jalloh got his nose broken and his ear-drum wounded. These wounds were only discovered in a second autopsy, initiated by the civil action.
There is no justice in this case. And justice is still excluded by the court's decision in Karlsruhe. Despite the clear critics from Karlsruhe about the court case so far, what mustn't be is still suppressed. Believing in suicide while excluding to research the possibility of a killing, originates in racist ways of thinking and structures in this country. For the Dessau police protective statements and racism go together.
We owe the continuation of the work of breaking the silence around Oury Jalloh's death to the “Initiative in Remembrance of Oury Jalloh” (Initiative zum Gedenken an Oury Jalloh). Oury Jalloh's death has become a symbol of racist police brutality and Oury Jalloh is alive in the struggle against colonial injustice which will be part of the events in Jena during the KARAWANE cultural festival
The Memorial Initiative Oury Jalloh is continuing the struggle for justice. The work on a international independent fact-finding commission and the preparations for a tribunal are proceeding.
Oury Jalloh - it was murder
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