Marcus Omofuma
Marcus Omofuma (born May 10, 1973 in Nigeria ; † May 1, 1999 on the plane between Vienna and Sofia ) was an asylum seeker from Nigeria who was negligently killed by three policemen during an airplane deportation from Austria to Sofia ( Bulgaria ) .
Life
In Nigeria he was a member of the Ogboni League, which is officially banned because of acts of violence up to the systematic intimidation and murder of its own supporters, but has numerous members and power due to its repressive actions among the local population. Omofuma had fled to Europe because he had violated a federal law and, according to his own statements, had been sentenced to death for it.
In 1994 Omofuma entered Germany under the name "Marcus Bangurari" and with the false indication of origin Sierra Leone , where he became the father of a daughter. The German authorities rejected his application for asylum , which is why he entered Austria illegally on November 16, 1998. He applied for asylum and was housed in Traiskirchen (see also Traiskirchen refugee camp ). The reason given was that he had fled Nigeria from religious persecution.
In practice, the Austrian asylum authorities do not consider persecution by the Ogboni-Bund as a relevant reason for obtaining asylum status. Therefore, his application was rejected in the first and second instance. In December 1998, Marcus Omofuma came in detention pending deportation . On May 1, 1999, he was supposed to be deported to Bulgaria by plane. According to the statement of the accompanying police officers, Omofuma did not want to board and began to scream and riot on the plane, whereupon the three officers tied his chest to the seat with adhesive tape and taped his mouth and, according to the expert opinion, at least part of his right nostril, whereupon he taped up either suffocated or died of heart failure - opinions are divided here.
Political and legal implications
The Marcus Omofuma case caused a great domestic political sensation in Austria and brought the then Interior Minister Karl Schlögl ( SPÖ ) a lot of criticism - also from within his own party. He was accused of knowing about the illegal practice of taping people to be deported and of having done nothing about it. These allegations were also corroborated by statements made by his predecessor Caspar Eine (SPÖ).
Schlögl received backing from the FPÖ and the Kronen Zeitung , which justified the police officers' actions under the headline “This is how the deportation prisoner raged!” . In the article, Omofuma is portrayed as a wildly biting rioter who could only be tamed by the three policemen with bondage and tape. A month later the Austrian Press Council condemned the newspaper for this title and the article that followed it . Jörg Haider , at that time the former federal party chairman of the FPÖ, described Omofuma as a drug dealer, which was found to be untrue and dishonorable in the course of a trial led by his daughter against Haider at the Vienna Commercial Court in April 2001.
Protests
The death of Marcus Omofuma led to the largest protest movement of African migrants and refugees in Austria, who for the first time formed a broad alliance with anti-racist groups. This was followed by a series of demonstrations and the establishment of a platform “For a world without racism ”, in which migrant and left-wing anti-racist groups initially came together. In parliament, Interior Minister Schlögl's speech was interrupted by heckling from a left-wing activist who threw leaflets into the plenary chamber and was banned from parliament for one year. The large-scale demonstrations and vigils in front of the Ministry of the Interior were dampened after some of the African activists were arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking in a large-scale drug raid called " Operation Spring ". Within the protest movement, this partly led to a lack of solidarity with the Africans.
In later protests against racism and police violence in Austria, Omofuma's death was remembered again and again.
Medical report on the death of Marcus Omofuma
There are four medical reports on the cause of death of Marcus Omofuma. The first was created in May 1999 in Sofia ( Bulgaria ) - the destination of the deportation. In February 2001, an opinion from an Austrian coroner in Vienna followed. In May 2001 a third expert opinion was drawn up in Germany.
According to the first medical report of the Bulgarian forensic doctor Stojcho Radanov, the death of Marcus Omofuma was the result of a process of suffocation , in which chest compression and partial closure of the breathing openings with adhesive tape worked together. According to the report, the process was associated with an oxygen deficiency, which probably lasted between 20 and 60 minutes.
The Austrian forensic doctor Christian Reiter does not rule out a death from suffocation in an expert report that was drawn up almost two years after Omofuma's death, but comes to the conclusion that “a causal connection between death and sticking” with “that required for the criminal proceedings Security cannot be proven ” . After this report was made public, Stojcho Radanov spoke up again and contradicted the Viennese forensic doctor both on this point and in his core thesis that Omofuma died as a result of an embolism . "Marcus Omofuma died because his mouth was taped up and his body was handcuffed," Radanov is quoted as saying. According to him, it was obvious that Omofuma suffocated from the sticking of the mouth, which he could prove by glue streaks in the lungs. The photo of the dead Omofuma has also been used by Radanov since 1999 in his lectures to illustrate a “classic death by suffocation” .
Herbert Budka, Professor of Neuropathology in Vienna, examined the brain of Marcus Omofuma neuropathologically. With his report of July 12, 1999, it was established that massive damage to the brain occurred as a result of lack of oxygen, which became irreparable in the last 30 minutes and ultimately led to Omofuma's death.
In May 2001, a report made in Germany by the Münster forensic doctor Bernd Brinkmann confirmed the Bulgarian report.
Court process
The three police officers were found guilty of negligent homicide under particularly dangerous circumstances by the Korneuburg Regional Court in 2002 . The sentence of eight months, with a trial period of three years, enabled the convicts to continue working as police officers. Her suspension from duty was lifted on May 5, 2001 - months before the first main hearing.
The mild verdict was heavily criticized in large parts of Austrian civil society . The refugee aid Asyl in Not used the term " racial justice " and put "a mockery of the victim and human rights" in the room.
Memorial stone and human rights square
The artist and sculptor Ulrike Truger created a memorial stone for the deceased asylum seeker at her own expense as a symbol against racism and xenophobia. After initially trying in vain to find a suitable location for installation together with the Vienna city council, the three-meter-high and five-tonne granite sculpture was initially installed in front of the Vienna State Opera on October 10, 2003 without permission . In an interview Truger explained: "[...] the public display of the Marcus Omofuma stone expresses regret over the tragic death of Marcus Omofuma and gives an impetus to an integrative and humane view."
About a month later, the memorial stone was removed from its original location and taken to a warehouse. On November 17, it was given a new public place in the course of a small memorial service in front of the Museum Quarter on Mariahilfer Strasse .
Especially in the first few years after it was erected at the Museum Quarter, the memorial stone was repeatedly targeted by vandalism and soiled with xenophobic graffiti. Several times it was cleaned and smeared again. The installation was rejected by the FPÖ- Vienna and since then the removal of the sculpture has repeatedly been requested.
Since December 2, 2014, the square on which the memorial stone stands has been named Human Rights Square by resolution of the City of Vienna's Culture Committee . In 2018, on the initiative of the district of Neubau and Art in Public Space Vienna (KÖR), the sculpture “Viennese Banquet of Human Rights and their Guardians” by the French artist Françoise Schein was installed and opened on June 14th.
Footnotes
- ↑ Sabine Cihak: In deep grief: a content-analytical time comparison of obituaries in Austria . 2009, p. 48 .
- ↑ a b Ten years later: The Omofuma case is still having an impact. In: The press. April 28, 2009, accessed March 21, 2020 .
- ↑ Michael Simoner : Causa Marcus Omofuma: Haider condemns. In: The Standard . April 23, 2001, accessed June 7, 2020 (Austrian German).
- ↑ wien ORF at / Agencies red: 50,000 in the “Black Lives Matter” demo. June 4, 2020, accessed June 13, 2020 .
- ↑ no-racism.net: Marcus Omofuma: "Classic Asphyxiation" , February 6, 2001
- ↑ Die Bunte Zeitung (Issue No. 1 - March / April 2002): Affair Omofuma: Fatal "Immobilization" ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Michael Genner : Rassenjustiz: Conditional punishments in the Omofuma trial show: Austria is not a constitutional state. The mild sentence represents a mockery of the victim and the human right. Retrieved from website Asyl in Not on March 27, 2016
- ↑ Thomas Rottenberg : A stone for Marcus Omofuma. In: The Standard . May 30, 2003, accessed June 7, 2020 (Austrian German).
- ↑ The Marcus Omofuma stone ( Memento of the original from January 19, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Memorial sites. In: Traces of Migration. Accessed June 7, 2020 (German).
- ↑ Moving the "Omofuma stone" does not fit FPÖ - derStandard.at. November 17, 2003, accessed June 7, 2020 (Austrian German).
- ↑ Press service of the town hall correspondence: Archive report: December 2nd: Photo session "Platz der Menschenrechte" in the new building. Municipality of Vienna, December 1, 2014, accessed on June 6, 2020 .
- ↑ New building - work of art “Vienna Banquet of Human Rights and their Guardians”. District council new building, 2018, accessed on June 7, 2020 .
Web links
- www.no-racism.net Collection of articles on the trial of the three foreign police officers
- Judgment of the Supreme Court , July 13, 2000, reference number 6Ob114 / 00h
- Judgment of the Supreme Court, August 29, 2002, reference number 6Ob283 / 01p
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Omofuma, Marcus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Nigerian asylum seeker |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 10, 1973 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nigeria |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 1, 1999 |
| Place of death | between Vienna and Sofia (plane) |