December 7 2016 | 8pm | AZ Conni, Rudolf-Leonhardt-Str. 39
Information event on December 7 in AZ Conni with the Initiative in Remembrance of Oury Jalloh and the RAA Sachsen
Racist violence still is everyday life in our society. Attacks in the streets and on refugee accommodations, brutal isolation at the EU borders or police violence. The following denial, relativization and suppression are everyday life as well. These make it possible that thousands of people day trying to reach Europe every year, that rightwing terrorists like the „National Socialist Underground“ were able to murder over years and that Oury Jalloh burnt in a police cell while shackled on hands and feet — without serious consequences for the police officers involved.
It happened like this on January 7, 2005 in Dessau. Other than the public version, Oury Jalloh’s friends as well as antiracist initiatives have never believed that the asylum seeker from Sierra Leone had burnt himself. In May 2005 the public prosecution department brought charges against the police officer Andreas S. and his colleague Hans Ulrich M. because of murder by negligence. Two years later the lawsuit started at the district court Dessau-Roßlau. But after months of trial both officers were found not guilty because of lacking evidence. In January 2011 a new trial started, ending with the head of the police department, Andreas S., being adjudged to a penalty because of murder by negligence. The money fine as well as the legal expenses were paid by the “Union of the Police” Sachsen-Anhalt.
From the start the „Initiative in Remembrance of Oury Jalloh“ has been fighting for the complete solving of the circumstances of the death. It collected money to pay for an own fire expert report, for example. The initiative presented such a report in 2013, which showed that Oury Jalloh’s deadly wounds could only have been caused by the use of fire accelerant. Bit by bit more details about the murder of Oury Jalloh were known which also rendered visible the attempted cover ups by the authorities involved. The initiative’s members found themselves on trial again and again because of their political activities. The initiative made it possible that new investigations have to be started.
We invite you to come to AZ Conni on Wednesday, December 7 at 8 p.m. The Initiative in Remembrance of Oury Jalloh and the RAA Sachsen (Counseling Services for Victims of Hate Crimes) will inform about the investigations as well as the repression against the activists and discuss the current debate about racist violence.
And: We are mobilizing to the demonstration in remembrance of Oury Jalloh in Dessau on January 7, 2017, the day of his death. We will go there together from Dresden; more information to follow.
