Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
55
Amnesty International September 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
station for about 10 minutes. Finally Simon Moleke
Njie told the officers that he wanted to speak to their
superior and entered the station. The officer on duty to
whom he reported the attack, refused to give him his
name. After about 25 minutes a patrol car arrived. A
further
10-minute-long
exchange
took
place
concerning his passport before Simon Moleke Njie
was taken to the scene of the attack. Afterwards he
was taken to a hospital for treatment. Simon Moleke
Njie was assaulted again on 14 June 2001, at around
8.30pm, in front of his apartment house on
Grzybowska street no. 30, by three young men and a
women who came running after him. After one of the
men attempted to punch him in the face he managed
to run back to his apartment. Simon Moleke Njie then
waited for two friends before they then proceeded to
the police station. He had to wait for over 45 minutes
for a police patrol which was to take him back to the
area where the assault took place, in order to identify
if possible any of the perpetrators. At the time of
writing no progress has been reported in the
investigations of these two incidents of alleged racist
violence.
AI urged the Polish authorities to ensure equal
treatment and protection to all people on its territory.
The organization also urged the authorities to
thoroughly and impartially investigate the reported
incidents, including the conduct of the police officers
involved.
P O R T U G A L
Situation at Linhó Prison
On 12 March AI wrote to the Minister of Justice about
recent allegations that prison guards were physically
ill-treating inmates at Linhó Prison (Sintra) and that
material conditions at the prison were inhuman and
degrading.
AI brought the minister’s attention to reports that
prison guards in the security unit were beating inmates
there with batons. It also referred to nine specific cases
in which physical assaults by prison officers were
alleged to have taken place - one in January 1999 and
the remainder between February and May 2000. AI
asked whether complaints had been lodged by the
individual prisoners in any of these cases, whether
investigations had been carried out and, if so, what the
results of the investigations had been.
AI also referred to allegations it had received
about poor conditions at the prison, such as lack of
cleanliness, infestations of cockroaches and mice and
unsatisfactory access to medical care. Such access was
reportedly filtered by the prison officer in charge of
the relevant wing, who had no medical knowledge that
would allow for an assessment of the urgency of a
problem. Some inmates were said to be concerned
about the presence in the wings of other inmates
suffering from contagious diseases, and who had not
fully recovered from their illness before being sent
back to their cells. AI raised, as one example of its
concern, the case of Carlos Miguel Figueiredo
Ferreira, who allegedly became blind following an eye
infection that had not been properly and promptly
dealt with by medical staff at the prison, although he
had told nurses he had been suffering from headaches
for about a month and a half.
AI recalled that it had, for some time, been
concerned about reports originating from Linhó
Prison (see AI Report 2000). The European
Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT),
which visited Linhó in 1992 and again in 1995, had
also expressed its concern about, among other things,
the number of prisoners being held in isolation in the
security unit and inadequate sanitary facilities.
On 29 March the Director General of Prison
Services (DGSP) responded with information about
each of the nine cases of alleged ill-treatment raised
by AI. In many cases the Director General stated that
the prisoner had been subjected to disciplinary
measures for violent or disruptive acts, but that little
or no information had been received by the DGSP
alleging violence by guards. However, in one case,
that of Nélio Henrique de Sá, reportedly assaulted by
a guard in April 2000 during an incident in the
refectory, AI was told that an investigation into the use
of physical force by a guard concluded that his
conduct had been inappropriate and that he had been
issued with a written reprimand. In another case, the
use of physical force was found to have been
proportional to the circumstances.
The Director General also informed AI that Linhó
Prison was being totally renovated. This involved,
among other things, the introduction of improved
sanitary facilities. A health unit, with beds for 18
patients and availability of specialist consultants, was
opened at the end of 1998. With regard to the case of
Carlos Miguel Figueiredo Ferreira, an investigation
was continuing into a complaint of medical neglect
that had been brought by his brother.
Effective impunity: case of Rui Matias Oliveira
Rui Matias Oliveira was shot dead by an officer of the
Traffic Division of the Public Security Police (PSP)
on 1 May 1990, during a car pursuit in the Olivais area
of Lisbon. The 24-year-old, suspected of theft, was
unarmed. There was contradictory testimony as to
whether the officers had identified themselves by
using their siren or lights. The police officers allegedly
shot at the car at least three times. One of the shots
pierced Rui Oliveira’s skull. However, according to
reports, the bullet which entered his head, together
with a part of the head itself, disappeared from within
the interior of the car and neither was ever recovered.
The car had allegedly been emptied of contents and
cleaned by officers of the same traffic division. As
long as 11 years later, on 6 March 2001, the officer
who fired the fatal shot was sentenced, by the Court of
Boa Hora, to a suspended two-year prison term for
negligent homicide (homicídio negligente), a form of
manslaughter. In 1993 the same officer had been
sentenced, by the Court of Cascais, to a suspended
prison term of four years and six months after shooting
several times at a “suspicious” car containing five