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Amnesty International Report 2004 - Austria

Covering events from January - December 2003

A man died in police custody after reportedly being ill-treated and dangerously restrained by public officials. The investigation into the fatal shooting of a man in 2002 was ongoing. Allegations of police illtreatment and excessive use of force continued. Parliament adopted the controversial new Asylum Law. The European Court of Human Rights ruled against Austria in the case of three convicted gay men.

Deaths in police custody

Thirty-three-year-old Cheibani Wague from Mauritania died in police custody in Vienna in the night of 15-16 July. Police were called to Cheibani Wague's workplace at around 11pm on 15 July after a dispute between him and a colleague had been reported. Cheibani Wague, who had initially reacted calmly to the presence of the police and medical personnel, was reportedly violently restrained by police officers after he suddenly leapt out of an ambulance.

Video footage of the incident depicted six police and medical officials surrounding Cheibani Wague as he lay handcuffed, face-down on the ground, apparently unconscious. While one police officer could be seen standing on the detainee's leg with one foot, a medical attendant stood on him with both feet. Cheibani Wague was subsequently taken to Vienna's General Hospital, where he reportedly died at around 6am on 16 July. An autopsy report published in November indicated lack of oxygen to the brain and irreversible failure of the circulatory system as the causes of death. The official investigation into the incident was ongoing at the end of the year.

In December, however, Vienna's Independent Administrative Tribunal examined whether the police officers had acted unlawfully during the incident. However, during the hearings the police officers refused to cooperate with the Tribunal and declined to make any statements, even though such non-cooperation was illegal.

Police shootings: update

The investigation into the fatal shooting of 28-year-old Binali Ilter was still ongoing at the end of the year. Binali Ilter, an Austrian national of Turkish origin was shot dead by police in Vienna's city centre on 31 August 2002. At the time of the shooting he was unarmed and suffering from schizophrenia.

Allegations of police ill-treatment

There were continued allegations that police officers ill-treated and used excessive force, including against detainees.

• On 24 April, Vienna's Independent Administrative Tribunal found that police officers had ill-treated a man during a demonstration in Vienna on 13 April 2002. The man had taken part in a counter-demonstration to a far right-wing meeting on Vienna's Heldenplatz. The Tribunal found that, without apparent necessity, the police officers knocked the man to the ground by using their batons and kicking his legs away from under him and then kicked and hit the man as he lay on the ground. As a result of the incident the man sustained large bruising to his left upper arm, left thigh and pelvis and various abrasions and swelling on other parts of his body.

• On 3 June Klagenfurt District Court ordered Austria to pay Ewald Stattmann 30,000 euros in compensation for the extensive injuries he suffered as a result of being ill-treated in police custody in Villach in 1996. Ewald Stattmann was repeatedly kicked by two police officers in a holding cell at Villach police headquarters in the early hours of 29 December 1996. He was found unconscious at around 6am and was later taken to hospital where he underwent a life-saving operation and spent 10 days in intensive care. He suffered various injuries, including multiple bruising, a fractured skull and a cerebral haemorrhage. Despite the serious injuries no charges were ever brought against the police officers.

• In early September, Lower Austria's Independent Administrative Tribunal ruled in favour of 32 foreign nationals of African origin who had lodged multiple complaints about their cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by police in January 2000. Around 130 police officers raided a building used to house asylum-seekers in Traiskirchen, Lower Austria on the evening of 17 January 2000, searching for drugs. The Tribunal found that the police had violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by binding the residents' hands in plastic restraints for several hours without good reason, thereby causing them physical and mental suffering, and not allowing them to use the toilet or giving them access to water. The Tribunal also ruled that the overall operation was illegal owing to the absence of a search warrant.

Racism

• In May Linz District Court ruled that a police officer who had verbally abused a black motorist on 31 July 2002, calling him a "shit negro", had not violated his human dignity under Austria's Criminal Code. The Court argued that, although the police officer had insulted the man, the insult was directed at the complainant as an individual, "who 'by chance' belongs to the black race and not against the black race as such". An earlier court decision had also rejected the man's complaint.

Refugees

A new Asylum Law, adopted by parliament in October, was heavily criticized by refugee and human rights organizations. The new law, among other things, eliminates the suspensive effect of appeals, introduces a list of safe countries of origin and effectively prevents asylum-seekers bringing at a later date new facts and evidence to the attention of the asylum authorities. It is feared that cases of refoulement (forcible return) may result from these new procedures.

Unequal age of consent

On 9 January the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favour of three gay men who had filed complaints against Austria after being convicted under Article 209 of the Austrian Criminal Code in the period 1996-1997. The article, which was repealed in July 2002, set the age of consent for gay men at 18 years of age as opposed to 14 for heterosexuals and lesbians. Gay men convicted of violating Article 209 faced up to five years' imprisonment. In the cases of L. and V. v. Austria and S.L. v. Austria the European Court of Human Rights ruled that in convicting all three men under Article 209 Austria had violated Articles 14 and 8 of the ECHR, namely the prohibition of discrimination and the right to respect for private life.