Marcus Omofuma suffocated to death while being deported from Austria in 1999. The police officers in charge were in court, here is the preliminary outcome of the trial:


The Judgment (not absolute - pending appeal) of the District
Court of Korneuburg
under the chairmanship of Judge Fiala as follows:

Guilty of causing death by negligence under particularly
dangerous
circumstances. Sentence: 8 months 7 three years probation.

Grounds:

The court considered it proven that on the 1st of May 1999 Marcus
Omofuma was
subjected to the following treatment at the hands of the three
aliens policemen
-his mouth was taped, his jaw was fixed in place prohibiting
vertical movement,
his head was fixed to the headrest, his chest was taped to the
seat back from
elbow to shoulder, that in the area of his chest he was also
bound for a short
time with Velcro fastener and and that he was subjected to 2 or 3
further blows
with adhesive parcel tape when he moaned, so that all
possibilities to
articulate anything were prevented. As a consequence Marcus
Omofuma slowly
suffocated to death over a period of at least one half to one
hour. In this
point the court relied on the expert testimony of Professor
Brinkmann
 http://www.8ung.at/gutachten.

Thus the court accepted that the objective facts of the case led
to the
conclusion that the prisoner had been tortured but that the
necessary intention
on the part of the officers had not been shown.

Intention of this nature had not been demonstrated by the Public
Prosecutor, who
had relied on Dolus Eventualis - that is, toleration of
circumstances which
would logically lead to death, nor was it possible to say that
there had been
enough evidence during the trial itself. The testimony of one
witness who stated
that an officer had laughed while taping the prisoner was not of
itself
sufficient.

The practice of taping prisoners was not being used for the first
time but was
an everyday occurrence and this was also a ground for saying that
there was no
intention to torture since for the accused it was simply part of
their job and
that it was not done “in order to torture but in order to silence
the prisoner
and to avoid being bitten.”

The accused in the dock could not be regarded as solely
responsible. Their
direct superiors and those ‘further up’ were partially
responsible too. The
initiation of proceedings against them was not the duty of the
court but lay
with the Director of Public Prosecutions. Decisive for the case
was the fact
that death was not due to a heart defect but to brain death
caused by
suffocation. The suffocation was caused, amongst other things, by
the fact that
adhesive tape does not behave in the same manner as rope but
sticks and if used
immediately after breathing out prevents breathing in again.

The finding of guilt derived from the fact that “ when I treat a
person in such
a manner and he is in my care and custody” there is an increased
responsibility
to ensure that nothing adverse occurs. Marcus Omofuma was given
no possibility
of articulation. The officers were duty bound to ensure that they
could
communicate with their prisoner. The possibility of creating
panic, should
Omofuma have shouted, was in no way proportional to the
anticipated danger. In
any case there was no likelyhood that Omofuma’s cries would have
led to panic in
a machine as loud as the one in question. It would have been
better to break off
the deportation prior to take-off should further resistance have
been offered.
It was foreseeable that something could happen and it was
reasonable to expect
the officers to be aware of this. The fact that nothing had
happened under
similar circumstances in the past did not excuse the officers in
any way and
could be ascribed to luck or to less excessive tying up.



Determining the Sentence:

The court could determine no aggravating circumstances. The long
duration of the
situation was balanced by the danger involved. Mitigating factors
were
irreproachable life of the accused, their previously good
reputation, their
contribution to ascertaining the truth, the length of the
proceedings, the fact
that the accused were not the only ones responsible but also
those “ who stand
above them.” Marcus Omofuma could also be said to have a share of
the blame in
that he offered resistance to the officers carrying out their
executive duties.



further information:
 http://no-racism.net/racismkills/index_en.htm

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