Arşiv

📂 1998

1998 — First Detention in Köpenick: Severe Illness, Hunger Strikes and Release Because I Was Medically Unfit for Detention Main court case: Amtsgericht Schöneberg — 70 XIV 3148/98 B. Documents in This Folder: The Grounds for My Detention, My Request to Return to France and the Recorded Deterioration of My Health The documents collected here include police arrest reports, my recorded statement, hearing minutes and detention orders issued by Amtsgericht Schöneberg in case 70 XIV 3148/98 B, correspondence concerning the procurement of travel documents and the extension of detention, the police medical service’s finding that I was no longer medically fit for detention, and the official withdrawal of the detention application. These records show how my loss of documents became the basis for detention pending deportation, how my request to return to France remained unresolved while detention continued, and how my worsening health was recorded before my eventual release on medical grounds. On 7 August 1998, I was arrested in Berlin. This detention was not a prison sentence imposed following a criminal conviction; it concerned my immigration status and the absence of documents. My recorded statement explains that I had entered France legally with a passport and a six-month Schengen visa and had travelled to Berlin as a wedding guest. It also records that my passport and 400 Deutsche Marks had been stolen. I denied working at the premises: I explained that I had taken medication and needed a glass of water when the police arrived. The police report nevertheless alleged unlawful employment. Both the allegation and my response are important parts of the material in this folder. My recorded explanation appears on page 6 of the PDF. On 8 August 1998, the court expressly recorded that I did not speak German, that adequate communication was impossible and that an interpreter could not be reached. Despite this, it ordered provisional deprivation of liberty until 28 August. The absence of an interpreter and the decision to detain me are therefore recorded in the court’s own document, on page 7. At the hearing on 12 August 1998, I explained that I had arrived through France with a passport and visa, had lost my documents at the wedding and intended to return to Paris with the acquaintance with whom I had travelled. I opposed deportation and explained that I had not been found washing dishes. The court nevertheless proceeded on the assumption that I had entered without a visa, relied on the police allegation of unlawful employment and ordered detention pending deportation until 23 October. My explanation and the court’s different assessment can be read together on pages 8–9. The folder also contains correspondence about obtaining replacement travel documents, including the request sent to the Azerbaijani embassy on 11 September 1998 and the application dated 19 October to extend my detention. The authorities alleged that I had delayed the document procedure by failing to cooperate. At the subsequent hearing, I expressly disputed this: I explained that I had requested an interpreter, not refused cooperation. By the hearing on 23 October 1998, the deterioration of my health was explicitly recorded. The minutes contain my statements about attacks and bleeding at night, requests for a doctor, the police’s initial failure to act, a three-day hunger strike, a subsequent medical examination and medication. I again asked for help and stated that, if released, I would travel to France with an acquaintance. The court did not grant the release I requested; instead, it extended detention until 30 December. Pages 13–14 therefore preserve both my demand for release and medical help and the decision to continue holding me. The final documents show why that continued detention came to an end. The police medical service declared me “nicht mehr haft- und verwahrfähig” — no longer medically fit for detention or custody. In its letter of 23 November 1998, the authority withdrew the detention application and expressly stated that I was being released for that reason. These documents appear on pages 15–16. The documentary sequence is central to this folder: arrest after the loss of my passport, detention ordered without adequate communication at the first hearing, my explanations about lawful entry and returning to France, continued detention despite my recorded health complaints, and eventual release because the police medical service itself found that I could no longer remain in custody. The following account explains the hospital examinations, protests, suffering and consequences surrounding those documents. This folder contains documents concerning the beginning of the events that profoundly affected my health and the course of my life. In 1998, after arriving in Germany at the age of 28, I was detained pending deportation in Köpenick. I entered detention as a young, physically strong man. During approximately three and a half months in custody, I developed a severe illness, suffered persistent coughing and experienced a physical deterioration that became worse day by day. I repeatedly demanded medical care, protested and went on hunger strikes. This was the beginning of a medical and legal struggle that has now continued for twenty-eight years. During this detention, I was taken to six hospitals for examinations. Those examinations presented my organs and overall physical condition as healthy. I was indeed a strong and otherwise healthy young man; my complaint concerned the severe acute illness developing during detention. Findings that my organs were healthy did not mean that my coughing, suffering and worsening condition could be disregarded. The central issue is how those symptoms were investigated, documented and treated while my health continued to deteriorate. The complete medical records from all six hospitals are not included in this folder. Their absence must be made clear: this collection does not contain the entire medical history of my detention. Those records are essential to establish which examinations were performed, what symptoms I reported, what findings were recorded and what treatment was actually provided. My objection is that documents presenting me as healthy were used to support continued detention while the illness for which I was demanding help remained inadequately addressed. The court minutes contain a written record of my deteriorating health and my protests at the time. They record my statement that I was suffering attacks and bleeding at night, that I had asked the police to call a doctor and that no action had initially been taken. They also record a three-day hunger strike, a subsequent medical examination and the medication I was then taking. These concerns were raised during detention itself; they were not first described years later. My release was not simply the routine end of detention. The court had extended my detention until 30 December 1998. However, the police medical service subsequently stated that I was no longer medically fit for detention or custody. The official letter dated 23 November 1998 confirms that the detention application was withdrawn and that I was being released because I was no longer fit to remain in detention. The decisive fact is that my health had deteriorated to the point where continued detention was medically untenable. Yet release because of serious illness was not followed by secure accommodation, continuing medical treatment or the necessary documents. I was left seriously ill on the streets as winter approached. My repeated approaches to the immigration authorities did not secure the help I needed. A person officially considered too ill to remain in detention was nevertheless left to face homelessness and the cold without adequate protection or continuing care. This is where the progression of my later health problems and my struggle for treatment and legal protection must begin. I had to fight not only the illness itself, but also the absence of the basic conditions needed to recover: shelter, medical care and documents. Despite the severe illnesses I now live with, I continue to stand and defend my rights. I regard the physical strength and determination that God gave me as the reason I have been able to continue this struggle for twenty-eight years. That endurance does not diminish the harm I suffered. The documents in this folder must therefore be read as the beginning of a connected history: illness during detention, repeated hospital examinations, demands for treatment, hunger strikes, medical unfitness for continued detention and release without an adequate basis for recovery. Instead of sending me to hospital in my seriously ill condition, they released me onto the streets in the winter cold. When I asked for help, saying, “Please send me to hospital; I am already seriously ill,” they gave me a document directing me to the immigration authority and told me that I would receive help there. Upon my release, I was given a document requiring me to report to the Ausländerbehörde — the immigration authority — within two weeks. I was warned that failure to comply could result in renewed detention. I was told that I was not permitted to leave Germany before reporting to that authority. They also warned me that leaving Germany would be considered unlawful and that they would detain me again, because my deportation proceedings had already begun. Thus, I did not leave detention without instructions: I was released with an official document directing me to report to the immigration authority. My continued presence in Germany cannot simply be explained as an unwillingness to travel to another country. The subsequent detention and events of 1999 are presented in a separate folder.