Four policemen who pleaded guilty to severely beating a Gambian man in a deserted Vienna warehouse have today been given suspended sentences. Three received an eight month suspended sentence and the other six months.
Bakary J., who is married to a Viennese woman, was due to be deported in April after being convicted of drugs offences. The deportation failed when the pilot of a plane scheduled to take Bakary J back to Gambia refused to take him on board since he was not there of his own accord.
"Inexcusable but justified"
Giving evidence today, the Gambian told the judge that when he asked the police where he could get his luggage back, they replied that he wouldn't need it since they had been told to kill him. He then described how he was taken to a warehouse and severely beaten.
Judge Thomas Schrammel said the police behaviour was inexcusable but justified the light sentences by saying the officers had had clean records until now and that there had been 'a certain provocation' by the victim.
An 8 month conditional sentence for 3 of the police officers and a 6 month conditional sentence for the 4th. Is that the right sentence?
I'm really shocked about this because now the court has declared this crime as a bagatelle offence, as a Kavalierdelikt. It seems that torture is something minor now and this is really shocking for any human rights activist.
The judge did say this was a first offence for the police officers involved and that was a reason for the mild sentence. What do you say to that?
Of course the sentence has to be fair to everybody and I grant that they confessed and that this was (hopefully) the first time that they had acted this way. But the judge also argued that the policemen were provoked by the victim and that is a line of argument that I just can't follow because the victim didn't do anything but say I don't want to be deported. If this provokes a policeman then he's not really qualified to do his job.
Heinz Patzelt
Bild: APA
This is, of course, the third high-profile case in recent years in which police officers have been accused of mishandling or abusing black residents in Austria. Do you think there is a pattern here?
Until now we don't know anything about a pattern. This is the first real and legally defined and sentenced torture case in Austria. Normally we speak about torture in South America or Asia or Africa perhaps; now we have to do this in the centre of Europe. And at least the judge decided this did take place. That is the positive part.
Now it is very important that the victim receives full compensation. That means firstly money, of course, but also long term medical treatment, since this individual has suffered a trauma from his torture experience. The third thing he needs is to stay together with his family and in his social surroundings and not be deported to Africa.
Obviously you can't change the past, but what do you think the Austrian police, the Austrian justice system and the Austrian public have leaned from this case?
I'm afraid that they have only understood it as an accident - an accident that happens during service and not as a big issue. If they take it seriously they have to see it as an alarm signal saying: stop, don't take another step in this direction, but change the culture of police behaviour in Austria.
The police force is not there to beat up victims, it is there to provide security.
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Bakary J
Bild: APA
Developments 1st September
Interior minister Liese Prokop has called for a review of the law books in the wake of harsh criticism of the suspended sentences.
Prokop said she had to accept the court's verdict, but that the law books had to be reconsidered so that punishable crimes met with appropriate punishment and that people got off more lightly for minor offences.
Vienna | 31.8.2006 | 14:32 
