The german case against three federal border officials involved in the death of a deportee has burst open. On a Monday, the eleventh day of deliberations, the Frankfurt court decided to refer the case of Aamir Ageeb, who died while being deported to Sudan, to a higher authority. The new case will be held in the judicial chamber of the district court. The justification given by the sitting Judge, Ralph Henrici, is that there exist circumstances which mean the accused could be found guilty of causing death by severe injury. Up until this point, they could only be found guilty of causing death by negligence.

[Image: By bending the torso, the hands are pressed into the pit of the stomach and the chin of the helmet is pressed into the cushion. Breathing would be cut off completely.]

Amir Ageeb | indy.de | more images

Judge Ralph Henrici explained that as there existed certain suspicious circumstances around the case, the accused could be guilty not only of causing death by negligence, but also causing death by severe injury. He has referred the Ageeb case to the district court.

The case against three federal border officials involved in the death of a deportee has burst open. On a Monday, the eleventh day of deliberations, the Frankfurt court decided to refer the case of Aamir Ageeb, who died while being deported to Sudan, to a higher authority. The new case will be held in the judicial chamber of the district court. The justification given by the sitting Judge, Ralph Henrici, is that there exist circumstances which mean the accused could be found guilty of causing death by severe injury. Up until this point, they could only be found guilty of causing death by negligence.

According to the judge, the trial had proved so far that the accused put up with the pain and fear of the shackled Sudanese man by holding him down so he couldn’t cry out any more. “However, they didn’t intend to kill him [the 30-year old man]” said the judge.

Their behaviour was unjustified and grossly out of proportion, as Ageeb had effectively been “tranquillised” by the strength of the restraints placed on him and posed no further physical threat. The accused had used pain and terror to keep him from calling out. The officers could have assessed the implications of this situation.

The lay assessor’s court , as Judge Henrici had said, had to refer the case, as only a court of assizes is competent to judge a case of death by severe injury. The counsel for the plaintiff asked for the case to be referred to the district court. The background to this was the testimony of the stewardess, who saw the three officers hold the Sudanese man down forcefully for six minutes. She had asked herself if such treatment of a shackled man was really necessary.

A court medical expert confirmed in his testimony that this was how the 30-year old, restrained by the hands, legs and upper body, had suffocated to death. Proceedings began in February, a little under five years since Ageeb’s death. Many human rights organisations have been sharply critical of this long delay before the commencement of proceedings. The accused ­ two inspectors and a sergeant ­ had accompanied the Sudanese man, who had resisted strongly, on a flight from Frankfurt via Cairo to Khartoum in Sudan on May 28th, 1999. It should especially be made clear in the course of proceedings whether these officers knew of the severe danger in holding the man down as they did.

Many police and federal border officials have reported in their testimony that they had only basic instructions in dealing with such cases. They had not been well informed, and in some cases not informed at all, of the dangers of such a method of physical restraint. The defence has tried in vain to get the Interior Minister, Otto Schily, to hear their testimony to the court.

Background Info

Thomas Sagebiel, Judge of Darmstadt District Court, says:

“The upper arms of the Sudanese man were fixed to his body with Velcro bands. Apart from that, his legs were secured together so when he sat he was unable to spread his legs apart. His ankles were shackled together with plastic cuffs, and below the knee joints there were further plastic cuffs in place. Finally his legs were fixed to the seat with Velcro bands and a long rope.

All in all, there were eleven cable ties, each around five metres long and not certified for official use – and four two-metre long Velcro bands used. Finally, they crammed a full-head helmet onto this “human parcel”.

Irrespective of the fundamental questions about the legitimacy of the use of such forceful methods in processing deportees, and also irrespective of the oft-heard argument as to whether people whose asylum application has been legally rejected and who resist deportation bring such forceful methods on themselves, one can at least understand the fear and agony of a man who finds himself in such a bodily prison, a man who finds himself psychologically in a very extreme situation, because he’s forcefully being deported, against his will, to an unknown future in which he expects to meet with repression. (…)

Also Aamir Ageeb was finally prevented from crying out. His head was pushed forward and down by outside pressure from takeoff. The three federal border officials, then possibly proceeded in such a brutal manner – according to the well-grounded and comprehensible conclusion of Claus Metz and as laid out in the medical expert’s report - as to break the three highest ribs on either side of his ribcage, which were broken just as his breastbone was broken, by the sharp edge of the helmet pressing against his ribcage. In Herr Metz’s medical opinion the breaks were not caused by later attempts to revive him, because typically those would affect lower-lying ribs.

In this needlessly cramped position, with neck bent, bound fists pressed into his thighs and the pit of his stomach, and forearms pressed against his ribcage, it was impossible for the Sudanese man to cry out. In any case, he could no longer breathe. It’s possible that one of the four seat cushions, which was placed between the helmet visor and his legs, was a cause of his lack of air, but at any rate it was one of the bindings and coverings on his legs. Aamir Ageeb, in any case, sadly suffocated to death. He suffered, in the last minutes of a life which must have been far from easy, unimaginable fear and torment.

According to statements of his fellow passengers, Ageeb was even able to shout that he couldn't breath any more, just before his strength faded away. In their testimonies, medically-trained passengers who had been called to help when he stopped breathing lamented that they had to perform artificial respiration and heart massage with Ageeb still strapped in his seat, because the federal border officials refused to cut his bonds with the special pliers they had brought with them.

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