Death of Oury Jalloh
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Oury Jalloh (born 1968 in Kabala, Sierra Leone;[1] died 7 January 2005 in Dessau, Germany) was a Sierra Leonean asylum seeker who died in a fire in a police cell in Dessau, Germany. The hands and feet of Jalloh, who was alone in the cell, were tied to a mattress. A fire alarm went off, but was initially turned off without further action by an officer. The case caused national and international outrage.
In 2007, two officers were charged with causing bodily harm with fatal consequences and with involuntary manslaughter, respectively, but were acquitted in December 2008 for lack of evidence. According to the presiding judge, contradictory testimony had prevented clarification of the circumstances and had obstructed due process. The Federal Court of Justice annulled one of the acquittals, and since January 2011, a different Landgericht than before is concerned with the case.
Contents
Life
According to his tombstone in Sierra Leone, Oury Jalloh was born in 1968.[2] In 2000,[3] he fled from the Sierra Leone Civil War to Guinea, where his parents were already living, and then further to Germany, where he applied for political asylum.[1] Although his application was declined, he was suffered to stay in the country. His child with a German citizen was put up for adoption by the mother shortly after birth.[4] Several weeks before his death, Jalloh was convicted to a prison sentence of three and a half years for commercial drug trafficking.
Death
According to the investigators, the fire broke out in the cell around midday. The fire alarm went off on two occasions. Noises and cries for help coming from the acoustically controlled cell were registered but ignored. Supposedly, the supervising police officer turned off the sound of the acoustic system shortly before twelve because he could not understand a telephone conversation. Only when the air-control alarm went off did he go down into the basement where the cell was located. But by that time Jalloh was found lying on a burning mattress, his body severely burned and his hands bound to the bed frame.[5] The remains of a lighter were only found in later investigations.
See also
References
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- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Kolvenbach, Pagonakis (2006): "Tod in der Zelle – Warum starb Oury Jalloh?". Documentary film.
- ↑ Flucht und Asyl
- ↑ Wie starb Oury Jalloh?, Tagesspiegel 2011-07-30.
- ↑ http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/oury-j11.shtml
External links
English:
- WSWS, "Germany: New evidence incriminates the police in death of African refugee"
- SPIEGEL, "Police Are Responsible for the Lives of All Their Detainees"
- Oury Jalloh - This was Murder. Video detailing late 2013 evidence which caused reopening of the case.
German:
- Prozessbeobachtung
- Gebrochenes Nasenbein (Broken nasal bone)
- Verbrannt in Polizeizelle Nr. 5, Sendung
- Chronologie der Ereignisse laut Staatsanwaltschaft Dessau am 7. Februar 2005
- taz, "Zynische Sprüche über einen Toten"
- Sachsen-Anhalt: Anklage wegen Todesfall nach Brand in Zelle
- Verbrannt in Zelle 5
- Behördenwillkür und Rassismus
- 1968 births
- 2005 deaths
- 21st-century criminals
- Deaths from fire
- Deaths in police custody in Germany
- Drug traffickers
- People from Northern Province, Sierra Leone
- Prisoners who died in German detention
- Sierra Leonean criminals
- Sierra Leonean emigrants to Germany
- Sierra Leonean people imprisoned abroad
- Sierra Leonean people who died in prison custody