Germany: Visits & Communications
Correspondence from 2003
The record of correspondence for 2003 is excerpted from the official United Nations report, E/CN.4/2003/Add.1.
Communication sent
On 2 September 2002, the Special Rapporteur, jointly with the Special Rapporteur on torture, sent a letter of allegation to the Government of Germany relating to the following case.
Stefan Neisius, a 31-year-old detainee, reportedly died in a Cologne hospital on 24 May 2002 after spending 13 days on a life support system. He had reportedly been admitted to hospital on 11 May 2002 after allegedly being ill-treated by several police officers of Cologne’s first police inspectorate (Polizeinspektion 1) at Eigelstein police station earlier the same evening. According to a statement made on 24 May 2002 by the Head of the Cologne Police, a special investigative commission was said to have been established under the guidance of the Public Prosecutors’ Office to examine the allegations of police ill-treatment. Six police officers were reportedly suspended from service shortly after the allegations of ill-treatment came to light.
Communication received
On 13 November 2002, the Government of Germany replied to the Special Rapporteur’s letter of 2 September 2002. It stated that although the allegations contained in the letter were largely correct, the precise sequence of events had not been conclusively investigated. In particular, the Government mentioned that Mr. Neisus was taken to hospital to give blood samples and not because of the severity of his bleeding; besides, even after he had been handcuffed, Mr. Neisius continued to display vigorous resistance, which obliged the police to tie him to a stretcher. It is also reported that the deceased’s mother did not accuse police officers of “brutally” beating her son in their apartment. Also, according to the public prosecution office, only one of the accused police officers has admitted striking Mr. Neisius in order to subdue him. The Government reported that the death certificate indicates that Mr. Neisius died as a result of a central respiratory failure resulting from hypoxic cerebral injury. The investigation was being conducted by the Cologne public prosecution office and was still in progress. The investigation has so far ruled out that Mr. Neisius was killed with specific intent. The persons who were charged with ill-treating Mr. Neisius at the Eigelstein police station have been identified. They are officers of the main police station as well as of the police stations in Cologne Eigelstein and Cologne Severinsviertel, all of whom are assigned to the area of the first police inspectorate at Cologne police headquarters. Having regard to the present state of proceedings, the question of compensation for the deceased’s family is not yet relevant. Finally, the Government stated that a working group had been set up at Cologne police headquarters in order to investigate questions of staff assignments and length of operations, management, advice and assistance, equipment, as well as the particular strains occurring within police inspectorates in large cities, whereby an appreciation of the roles, values and self-perceptions of members of the police are also covered.
Correspondence from 1983-2002
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has been corresponding with Governments regarding alleged violations since the mandate was established over two decades ago. While the Project on Extrajudicial Executions is making efforts to provide easily browsed versions of as many years as possible, much of the earlier correspondence is available only in the PDF versions of reports from 1983 to the present.