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Germany
684. By letter dated 20 September 2004, the Special Rapporteur notified the Government that he had received the following allegations, to which the Government responded by letter dated 20 November 2004:
685. Andre Heech, aged 30. On 14 February 2003 at 9 a.m., he was arrested for drunken behaviour by police officers in the vicinity of railway station in Frankfurt am Main. He was taken to the Fourth District Police Station and detained for one hour. In a police cell, as he sat on a bench, one of the three police officers present hit the right thigh of his amputated leg three times with a long metal object. He was denied medical treatment. Andre Heech was only able to call for medical help from a bar after being released, and he was taken by ambulance to the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Clinic, where he underwent surgery for a fractured right thighbone. Three steel pins were inserted into the thighbone. He was released from the hospital on 18 February 2003 and charges of bodily harm were lodged against the police officers in April 2003. By the end of October 2003 it was reported that criminal proceedings against the police officers had been discontinued.
686. The Government informed that he was picked up for drunkenness and released from custody shortly afterwards. Upon being released he went to a restaurant and called for help after experiencing pain in his leg. He received treatment for a broken thighbone, after which he alleged ill-treatment by the police officers. The public prosecutor’s office at the Frankfurt Regional Court instigated investigative proceedings against the police officers involved after criminal charges were brought on 25 February 2003. The officers denied the allegations. Extensive investigations revealed that Mr. Heech’s account of how he sustained his injuries was inconsistent and contradictory, ranging from not remembering falling, to recalling that he had fallen, and to his legs being forced apart while being searched. Moreover, the surgeon who operated on his leg at the University Clinic indicated there were no bruises, skin lesions or haematomas on his leg that would be consistent with being struck with a metal object. Subsequently, the public prosecutor’s office terminated investigative proceedings on 11 August 2003, and the appeal against this decision was rejected.
687. Magnus Gäfgen, a 28-year-old law student. On 30 September 2002, he was arrested when he went to collect the ransom money in connection with the kidnapping of a young boy in Frankfurt, who disappeared three days earlier. The next day, the police interrogators, after several hours of questioning and pursuing false leads given by Magnus Gäfgen, and concerned for the welfare of the boy, reportedly threatened him with torture on the written instructions of the Deputy Police President of the Frankfurt.
688. The Government informed that investigations carried out by the Frankfurt Regional
Court public prosecutor’s office indicated that on 1 October 2002, in the interests of locating
the kidnapped child, the Deputy Police Commissioner verbally ordered that Magnus Gäfgen
be questioned by means of the infliction of pain (without causing injury), under medical
supervision, and subject to prior warning. The Deputy Chief Inspector uttered these threats to
Magnus Gäfgen, who then revealed the location of the child’s body. After extensive
investigations, the public prosecutor’s office brought charges against the Deputy Chief
Inspector for unlawfully coercing a person with force or threat of an appreciable harm, and in
an especially serious case, abusing his powers and position as a public official, and against the
Deputy Police Commissioner for the same offences, as well as for suborning a subordinate to
commit an unlawful act in public office. The trial was set for 18 November 2004, and the
decision is expected at the beginning of 2005.
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This report has been published by Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights on July 27, 2005.