Death of Oury Jalloh

Oury Jalloh (1968 in Kabala, Sierra Leone[1] – 7 January 2005, in Dessau, Germany) was an 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.

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 remained 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.

Parallels to the Li Yangjie case

Chief prosecutor Folker Bittmann for the Oury Jalloh case[6] is also responsible for the Yangjie Li case, a 25-year-old Chinese architecture student murdered near her student accommodation in Dessau. During the course of the police investigation, the suspect's police parents fell into general suspicion of having covered up the evidence. Bittmann also spread the suspects' version according to which the victim had "consensual sex" with the accused. [7]

See also

References
  • Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007. Volume I. United States Government Printing Office. p. 1329.
  • "2008 Human Rights Report: Germany". Washington, D.C., USA: United States Department of State. 25 February 2009. Archived from the original on 26 February 2009. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
  • Misselwitz, Charlotte; Siebeck, Cornelia. Dissonant Memories Fragmented Present: Exchanging Young Discourses between Israel and Germany. Transcript Verlag. p. 33. ISBN 978-3-8376-1273-8.
  • Oschlies, Renate (12 January 2011). "Verbrannter Asylbewerber Oury Jalloh - Was geschah in Gewahrsamszelle 5?". Frankfurter Rundschau (in German). Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
  1. Overath, Margot (7 January 2011). "Tod eines Asylanten - Was geschah in Zelle Nr. 5?". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Berlin, Germany. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
  2. Kolvenbach, Pagonakis (2006): "Tod in der Zelle – Warum starb Oury Jalloh?". Documentary film.
  3. "Flucht und Asyl". Archived from the original on 2011-08-15. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
  4. Wie starb Oury Jalloh?, Tagesspiegel 2011-07-30.
  5. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/oury-j11.shtml
  6. University Giessen. "Leitender Oberstaatsanwalt Folker Bittmann". University Giessen. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  7. Lisa Garn. "Prosecutor triggers grief and anger". Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 1 June 2016.

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