Austria: Hearing into the death of Seibane Wague
01 September 2005
On 15 July 2003, 33-year-old Mauritanian Seibane Wague died when police officers were called to a dispute at his workplace (Statewatch Vol. 13 nos 3 & 4). The incident was caught on camera and showed the police sitting on Mr Wague whilst he was handcuffed and lying on the ground, as well as paramedics standing on the victim and failing to give first-aid as he lay motionless. Wague died of positional asphyxiation. According to eye witness reports, police beat the victim and threw him to the ground. The incident, which was filmed by a passer-by, was later screened on national television. The footage also raised serious questions about the conduct of the paramedics, who were seen standing on Mr Wague and "looking on" whilst Mr. Wague's condition deteriorated.
On 28 October this year, a second round of hearings started in the trial of six police officers, three paramedics and a doctor in Vienna's regional court, who are charged with death through negligence. In their defence, the police officers claimed that it was a lack of training on restraint techniques, rather than their beating-up of the victim, that led to his death. However, after the death of the deportee Marcus Omofuma (see Statewatch Vol. 10 no 6, Vol. 12 no 2), an Interior Ministry decree explicitly prohibited forcibly holding arrestees to the ground with their face to the floor. The police officers are claiming that the law enforcement agencies had not been properly informed about this decree.
Africans living in Austria have been subjected to racist stereotyping through "Operation Spring" that declared them potential drug dealers. This led to years of stop and search, deportations and racist media reporting. Police officers accused of brutality resulting in death have defended their conduct by claiming ignorance of the dangers involved in using violence to make arrests. Marcus Omofuma's death occurred in a very similar fashion and at the trial of the three police officers charged, Marcus was declared to have "joint guilt" in his own death. The officers received a suspended sentence. African commentator Chibo Onyeji identified this defence strategy, and the ideology underlying it, as the "Rodney King syndrome": "The defence argued that the policemen who battered Rodney King were endangered by him and that Rodney King's conquered body, which was shown by the video as it was 'being brutally beaten, repeatedly, and without visible resistance' was, in fact, the source of this endangerment" (Statewatch, Vol. 12 no 2).
Gertrud Lamptey, spokeswoman from the Platform for Justice for Seibane Wague commented:
The police officers in question are a danger to the general public and the only logical conclusion is to suspend them from their duties. The judgment should, according to an individual assessment of the officers' responsibilities, reflect a just sentence and in the case of a death during the course of duty, it should not follow the logic of the Vienna police which says that "we did not receive adequate training, therefore we are not guilty"."
A series of talks and events are accompanying the trial and activists are observing and transcribing the hearings, published on http://no-racism.net. A verdict is expected shortly; http://no-racism.net/article/1398. Statement from the Platform for Justice for Seibane Wague: http://no-racism.net/article/1416