Concerns in Europe January June 2001
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Malian national alleges serious ill-treatment
- Death in custody: police and doctor convicted
Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
Amnesty International September 2001 on 8 March and had tried, unsuccessfully, to submit an asylum request. She claimed that, on 10 March, an attempt was made to embark her on a Cameroon Airlines flight to Douala and that when she resisted force was used against her. One police officer allegedly pulled her backwards, after which he dragged her over the ground by her hair while insulting her. He also kicked her several times, before stamping on her legs. There were reportedly seven witnesses. Blandine Tundidi Maloza saw a doctor, but owing to continuing pains in her back and legs, asked to be able to see the doctor a second time. Her request was reportedly refused. Her application for asylum was finally accepted and she was admitted onto French territory on 15 March. According to the frontier police (Police aux frontières - PAF), Blandine Tundidi Maloza did not make a request for asylum until 11 March. The previous day she had refused to get on the aircraft, fought with police officers, stripped naked and ran, with eight others, along the runway. The officers had acted to restrain her for reasons of security. There were many other allegations of police ill- treatment at the holding area. In May a non- governmental organization that specialises in helping foreigners at border zones, the Association nationale
(Anafé), published a report that dealt with the specific situation at Roissy and referred to the cases of several individuals of Nigerian, Sierra Leonian, Congolese and Pakistani origin who, while handcuffed, had allegedly been slapped, beaten with truncheons or dragged along the ground when resisting police attempts to place them on flights out of France. Anafé noted that it was difficult to confirm some of the allegations, but during three visits in January and March, visitors had seen injuries consistent with allegations of beatings on foreigners being held there. A Paris Appeal Court decision of 7 February confirmed a judge’s order three days before, releasing Nigerian citizen John Abonayl Ejike from the holding area owing to allegations of ill-treatment. John Ejike maintained that he had been ill-treated during a failed attempt to deport him on 1 February. The judge had himself noted marks on his body. The Appeal Court considered that there was no evidence to suggest that John Ejike had been ill-treated or injured prior to arrest.
Concern was also expressed, among other things, about the placing of unaccompanied minors in holding areas. On 2 May, the Court of Cassation judged that to hold children in these areas was not an infringement of children’s rights. Its judgment was contrary to some decisions taken by lower courts. In June a three-year- old and a five-year-old child were reportedly held at Roissy for four days, separated from their parents, and a 14-year-old girl of Congolese origin was held at Zapi 3 at Roissy for 10 days, separated from her mother, and in the presence of male as well as female adults.
Islands, Spain, alleged that, on 21 February, he was arrested by uniformed PAF officers while on a train at Hendaye railway station, close to the border, and taken by car to the police station. Baba Traoré stated that he was travelling to Paris to renew his passport, because it was not possible to do this in Spain. He had a valid return train ticket and his Spanish residence and work permits. He claimed that he was seriously ill-treated while at Hendaye police station. He could not speak French but attempted several times to ask why he had been arrested. He was reportedly punched hard in the left eye while sitting in a chair. About half an hour later he was escorted by two officers to Biriatou police station and handed over to Spanish police officers, who released him, reportedly calling a taxi so that he could receive treatment at the local hospital of Bidasoa. Shortly afterwards he was transferred by ambulance to the hospital of Nuestra Señora de Aranzazu in San Sebastian (Guipúzcoa). On the same day he underwent surgery on the left eyeball, which, according to medical reports, was severely damaged by a “direct blow”. He remained in hospital for another six days, with further surgery a possibility. Baba Traoré lodged a judicial complaint with the public prosecutor of Bayonne. The prefect of Pyrénées-Atlantiques was reported as saying that the Malian had violently opposed readmission to Spain and therefore had to handcuffed and brought under control.
Aïssa Ihich at the police station of Mantes-la-Jolie (Yvelines) - and eight years after debate about the case had led to a reform of rules governing police custody - the correctional court of Versailles sentenced two officers of the local brigade urbaine to a suspended 10-month prison sentence and a doctor to a suspended one-year prison sentence. A third officer was acquitted. Aïssa Ihich died from an asthma attack on 27 May 1991. The doctor on duty at the police station, who had judged the detainee’s state of health to be compatible with an extension of police custody, was found guilty of involuntary homicide from “negligence”. The police officers were found guilty of acts of violence, inflicted during and immediately after arrest and found to have had an indirect link with the death. Officers of another police force, the Compagnie républicaine de sécurité (CRS), testified that Aïssa Ihich had been beaten with a truncheon on his head, body and hands while he was lying, immobilised, on the ground. The police officers had originally benefited from an order excluding them from the inquiry (ordonnance de non-lieu). However, in June 1997 the chambre d’accusation of the court of Versailles annulled the non-lieu order of the investigating magistrate and sent the officers and doctor to trial. Throughout the extremely long judicial proceedings the prosecutor did not accept that there was enough evidence against the police officers, and at the trial requested that they be found not guilty. The two convicted officers and the doctor have appealed against their convictions. (For further details, see AI Index: EUR 01/02/99, EUR 01/03/92 and EUR Yüklə 1,36 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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