Fundamental rights | Fundamental rights under pressure: Abusive and deadly state power

Article 2 of the Basic Law states: "Everyone has the right to life and physical integrity. Personal freedom is inviolable." In the Basic Rights Report , published by civil rights initiatives a few days ago, two articles are dedicated to particularly blatant violations of this fundamental right. The first addresses the evident increase in cases in which police operations result in the death of victims. This topic has been on everyone's lips, at least since the death of Lorenz A. on Easter Sunday in Oldenburg.

The young man was shot by a police officer shortly before his 22nd birthday – from behind as he ran away from the officer. Three bullets hit him in the upper body, hip, and head. A fourth bullet grazed his thigh. In her contribution to the Basic Rights Report, Britta Rabe reminds us once again that police officers are acquitted even in particularly high-profile cases, such as that of the young Senegalese refugee Mouhamed Dramé, who was killed by multiple gunfire in Dortmund.

Other weapons had previously been used against the suicidal teenager: pepper spray ("the whole bottle," as the operations commander emphasized) and a remote electroshock device, colloquially known as a Taser. These devices are also being used with increasing frequency , without, as in Mouhamed's case, the victims being approached or officers otherwise attempting to calm them down.

The Dortmund Regional Court acquitted all five accused police officers of manslaughter and even of negligence. The public prosecutor's office had at least demanded a suspended sentence for the operations commander. However, it agreed with the court that the officers "falsely believed they were acting in self-defense," which led to the young man's killing. According to the Basic Rights Report, since Mouhamed's death in August 2022 alone, 38 other people have been killed in police operations. And the argument of self-defense was repeatedly used to exonerate the officers.

In his report, lawyer, criminologist, and former prison director Thomas Galli focuses on a scandal that has largely been forgotten: the brutal treatment of prisoners in the Augsburg-Gablingen correctional facility (JVA) and the long-standing ignorance of the Bavarian Ministry of Justice despite complaints from those affected and a former prison doctor. The case, which journalists from the "Augsburger Allgemeine" newspaper made public in the fall of 2024, only briefly generated further headlines and TV and radio reports. The reason is likely that prisoners have few advocates.

One of them is Thomas Galli, an author who has been vehemently advocating for a far-reaching reform of the justice system for many years. He is convinced that prison sentences should only be imposed in a few, particularly serious cases. At Gablingen Prison, prisoners were apparently locked naked in special cells, sometimes for weeks at a time and without adequate legal grounds; some had to sleep on the bare cell floor, without even a mattress. Despite a detailed, urgent letter from a doctor to the Ministry of Justice, it took about a year for the authorities to intervene. Since then, an investigation has been underway against the prison administration.

The ARD program Kontraste was able to speak with affected prisoners at the end of November. One of them, Andreas Hartinger, said that at the beginning of his pre-trial detention, he was thrown into a "dark, windowless" room wearing only paper underwear and was not allowed to shower for ten days. He was also "punched in the stomach with a fist" by a staff member. Pre-trial detainee Angelo Jeremias told the program that he was suddenly seized by six officers. When asked where he was being taken, one of them replied: "To the hell of the south." He was then placed in a holding cell for 17 days. The prison has not commented on the cases, and lawyers have not been given any information.

In addition, the prison apparently attempted to cover up incidents during an unannounced visit by a team from the National Agency for the Prevention of Torture. The National Agency regularly inspects places of detention to verify compliance with human rights standards. During the visit on August 9, 2024, the inspection team was kept waiting for an unusually long time, Rainer Dopp, head of the National Agency, reported to Kontraste. Shortly thereafter, an anonymous complaint from prison officials in Gablingen was received by the Ministry of Justice in Munich. They stated that the so-called specially secured cells had been equipped with underwear, mattresses, and pillows while the inspectors were waiting.

"Containment in specially secured cells must not be abused to discipline or punish inmates or even to break prisoners."

Thomas Galli Lawyer and Criminologist

"Specially secured detention cells" (bgH), explains Thomas Galli, are intended for the short-term accommodation of prisoners who pose an acute danger to themselves or others. In Bavaria, if people are placed in such a cell for more than three days, the Ministry of Justice must be informed. According to the Bavarian Prison Act, accommodation in bgH is permitted in the Free State of Bavaria in cases of increased risk of escape, risk of violence against persons or property, or risk of suicide or self-harm. Inmates may be issued paper, easily tearable underwear or clothing to prevent strangulation.

According to Galli, detention in a federal prison can very easily lead to a violation of Article 2 of the Basic Law. "In particular, this type of detention must not be abused to discipline or punish inmates, or even to break them," the lawyer emphasizes. Yet that is precisely what appears to have happened in Gablingen.

And the number of unreported cases is likely high. Because detention in a prison cell is a daily occurrence in German prisons. According to Galli, this measure was used 7,275 times nationwide in 2023. The European Commission Against Torture considers it "unacceptable and degrading treatment." Such treatment also violates Article 1 of the Basic Law, which states that human dignity is inviolable. This applies to everyone "solely by virtue of their personhood," Galli emphasizes – regardless of the degree of guilt they have committed. Nothing is known about the duration of the detention.

Galli therefore also calls for a statutory maximum length of detention in federal prison cells, after which a detainee must be transferred to a psychiatric hospital. He also advocates for increased staffing at the National Office for the Prevention of Torture, statutory minimum standards for the equipment of special detention cells, and judicial approval for detention in these cells.