Seibane Wague

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Seibane Wague (also Cheibani Wague , born December 20, 1969 in Kaédi , Mauritania ; † July 15, 2003 in Vienna , Austria ) was a Mauritanian student who died in 2003 as a result of a police action in Vienna. Along with the death of Marcus Omofuma in 1999, the case is one of the best-known cases of racist police violence in Austria.

Life and education

Wague went to school in Nouakchott . From 1989 to 1996 he studied on a scholarship at the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow and obtained a Bachelor of Science in physics. From 1998 he completed a diploma course in technical physics at the Technical University of Vienna with a scholarship from the Afro-Asian Institute . During the summer of 2003 he was employed as a night watchman and leader of a children's workshop in the Vienna City Park in the so-called “Africa Cultural Village”. He was married to an Austrian.

Happened on July 15, 2003

One of the leaders of the Africa Cultural Village, Erfried Malle, first called the ambulance and then the police on the night of July 14th to 15th, 2003, because he considered psychiatric help for Wague to be necessary after several disputes with Wague. Malle stated that Wague had come up screaming with his hands up at him, whereupon he locked the office container and wanted to leave the park with the car in which his partner was already waiting. Wague would have thrown himself screaming on the hood of the car, smashed the roof and the windows and pushed a shopping cart against the rear of the car. He had tried to prevent Malle from leaving the Africa cultural village. Malle called the police on his mobile phone and drove slowly out of the city park to the adjacent street (Am Heumarkt). Wague tried to run along, holding onto the door opener flap. This broke off as a result and Wague fell to the ground, injuring himself.

Shortly afterwards, the rescue and police forces arrived on site. Wague had got up in the meantime and was having trouble breathing. The policemen, who immediately went to Wague, had to oppose him, as he continued to try to get to the Malle. When this failed, he took off his outer clothing and began dancing around, making unintelligible noises. An employee of the Africa Cultural Village managed to calm Wague down, but this did not last long. Subsequently, it was agreed among the emergency services that Wague had to be admitted to the Baumgartner Höhe psychiatric hospital, since none of those involved had any serious doubts that Wague had a serious mental disorder.

At first, as Wague had calmed down, he could be persuaded to go to the ambulance. Shortly before he was supposed to lie down on the transport couch that had already been brought out for this purpose, Wague fled again onto the lane of the adjacent street. The emergency doctor present now considered Wagues to be tied up for his own safety and for the safety of the paramedics on board during the journey. Wague had calmed down again and sat down on the cot. When they tried to put the handcuffs on his back, he began to struggle again. He was attached to the stretcher with a belt over his lower legs and pushed into the ambulance from behind in a prone position. The sliding side door, in front of which a policeman was standing, was also open.

Wague managed to turn around on the cot and take off the straps. He jumped out the sliding side door and kicked the policeman standing there with his head. He tried to get to the ambulance in front of the ambulance, but was stopped by the police. After that, Wague was brought to the ground between vehicles.

Six police officers then restrained Seibane Wague on his prone position with his hands and feet tied behind his back for at least five minutes. He was also given a strong neuroleptic ( Haldol ) by injection. Three paramedics also took part in the restraint of Seibane Wague. The restraint was partially carried out using the entire body weight and applying fist blows to Seibane Wague's body and head. The ambulance did not intervene.

Seibane Wague did not survive this procedure. The official act was documented on video by a witness from the time the vehicle was immobilized between the vehicles. As the video became public, Wague's death became a topic in the media.

aftermath

Parliamentary question to the Interior Minister in October 2003

  • Consequences as a result of the investigation by the Office for Internal Affairs (BIA) in the Ministry of the Interior: The emergency doctor was reported by the Ministry of the Interior. No disciplinary action was taken against the law enforcement officers involved.
  • There are precise regulations for the Austrian executive regarding the restraint of a person in a prone position with their feet or legs.
  • A working group was convened to examine the regulatory situation "Official acts against unruly persons".
  • The Human Rights Council has been asked to evaluate these regulations.
  • The BIA refused to allow the Human Rights Advisory Board to inspect the files. Reason: There is a court order that all relevant files are to be kept as classified information for everyone.

Role of Interior Minister Ernst Strasser

Just a few days after Wague's death, the then acting Interior Minister Ernst Strasser assured the police officers involved full loyalty.

Administrative Court and Independent Administrative Senate

At the end of 2004 the Vienna Independent Administrative Senate classified this official act as unlawful. The Administrative Court also essentially confirmed the illegality of the official act. Where the attempted transfer of Wagues to the psychiatric hospital and the use of handcuffs as a result of Wagues' attempt to escape were still considered to be justified, the VwGH judged the fixation on the floor and the use of the ankle cuffs to be illegal. A violation of the prohibition of torture under the European Convention on Human Rights was also found. However, the decision of the Administrative Court has no direct impact on the pending criminal proceedings.

Assessment

In this case of death, several, partly contradicting, expert reports were drawn up.

In his medical opinion, Dr. Risser in November 2004 to the conclusion that Seibane Wague died as a result of a congenital heart defect from circulatory failure. In his report he also describes injuries in the neck area and hematomas on the arms and legs of Seibane Wague. The consumption of drugs has also been proven.

Dr. Hudabiunigg in October 2005. In his medical report, he states that Seibane Wague did not suffocate from circulatory and heart failure, but from the intensity and duration of the restraint measures under the burden of the police and paramedics (positional asphyxiation ). As in every other death, cardiovascular failure and cardiac failure occurred only secondarily. He also criticized Seibane Wague for several minutes lying motionless on the ground without any resuscitation measures being initiated.

Rudolf Pföhs, an expert in emergency technology for the Austrian police, also criticized the police officers' restraint measures in his report, as well as the lack of regulations for such operations.

Criminal proceedings against emergency services

In July 2005, the trial of the six police officers, three paramedics and the emergency doctor involved was opened at the Vienna Regional Criminal Court. These persons are charged with negligently causing Seibane Wague's death under particularly dangerous circumstances.

At the beginning of the trial, the emergency doctor justified himself by saying that he was afraid of the police ("This is the authorities. They have the monopoly of power") and therefore did not intervene. He also assessed the situation as not life-threatening.

The police denied complicity in Seibane Wague's death and said they had relied on the emergency doctor, who was solely responsible. In addition, they were not sufficiently trained for such situations. They were not aware of the edicts issued by the Ministry of the Interior following the death of Marcus Omofuma .

A witness stated that Seibane Wague had a drug problem and became very aggressive in the African village on July 15.

After a long break to obtain the necessary expert opinion, the process was continued on October 28, 2005.

During the questioning of the witnesses, it became apparent that the paramedics and police officers involved were insufficiently trained for such official acts. It was also known that there were meetings and agreements between the police trainers and instructors prior to their testimony about this process. According to witness statements, a decree of the Ministry of the Interior from the year 2000 regarding fixation regulations reached some responsible training centers only after the trial began in 2005. The executive bodies apparently only imprecisely regulated how decrees and instructions are to be handled. The spectrum of testimonies ranged from the immediate announcement of such documents to the mere filing of files and others have never seen a decree from the Ministry of the Interior.

On November 9, 2005, the majority of the accused were acquitted in the first instance. A police officer and the ambulance were each sentenced to seven months' conditional imprisonment for negligent homicide. In doing so, Judge Gerhard Pohnert essentially followed the defense's line of argument, which pointed to the behavior of the police officers and paramedics involved and the random occurrence of death. These judgments are not final as both the convicts and the prosecutor appealed. In January 2007, the start of the appeal hearing was set for March 15, 2007.

On March 15, 2007, the Appeals Senate at the OLG essentially confirmed the rulings of the first instance. The sentence for the guilty policeman has been reduced to 4 months. Reason: The police officer behaved in accordance with the training and could not be held responsible for the catastrophic training situation at the Austrian police.

Anti-racist protest

A few weeks after Wague's death, the writer Elfriede Jelinek wrote an article about the events. The platform “Justice for Seibane Wague” was founded in 2005. In 2005 the group Tres Monos sang a song about Wague's fatal circumstances.

Web links

Media reports

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Aram Ghadimi: On the death of Seibane Wague: A chronology of internal and extrajudicial events . In: Samples. Viennese magazine for critical African studies . 13/2007, 7th year ( univie.ac.at [PDF]).
  2. ↑ oe1.orf.at: How racist are police officers? Retrieved May 30, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Simon Inou: Police violence against Africans: A chronology. In: The press . January 8, 2010, accessed May 30, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Black minority - Initiative minorities. Accessed May 30, 2020 (German).
  5. ↑ Racism Report 2003. ZARA - civil courage and anti-racism work , accessed on May 24, 2020 .
  6. ^ Causa Cheibani Wague - judgments essentially confirmed (ORF Vienna of March 15, 2007)
  7. ↑ Elfriede Jelinek: Cheibani W. Retrieved May 30, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Wague, Seibane
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mauritanian physics student and police victim
DATE OF BIRTH 20th December 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Kaédi , Mauritania
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 2003
Place of death Vienna