Federal Republic of Germany: A summary of concerns in the period May – October 1994

This report contains a number of new allegations which AI received in the period May – October 1994 of police ill-treatment of detainees or of failure to respond adequately to racially motivated assaults. Two controversial deaths in custody are also reported. Most of the victims were foreigners, including asylum-seekers or members of ethnic minorities. The cases reported included: Bulent Demir, ill-treated by police in April 1994; Nguyen T. a Vietnamese asylum-seeker allegedly beaten by police in June 1994; Oliver Ness, a journalist, reportedly assaulted by police in Hamburg in May 1994; Yusuf Barzan, allegedly attacked first by a gang of youths and then beaten by a member of the police in May 1994; and a black African man assaulted in May by right-wing extremists whom the police made to apprehend. Updates to cases previously acted upon by AI include: Habib J, an Iranian student; Amadeu Antonio Kiowa, an Angolan immigrant; Abdulkerim Balikci; ill-treatment by members of E-Schicht (Hamburg police); ill-treatment of residents of Granitz refugee hostel; racist attacks on an asylum hostel in Rostock; and the alleged ill treatment of foreigners by Bremen police. The deaths in detention reported are: Halim Dener (June 1994) and Kola Bankole (August 1994).

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