Foto: Police Dog attack on Farooq Khan
Police Brutality and Political Repression of Refugee Community Schwäbisch Gmünd
June 15th 2015
We call for your public support and critical solidarity for our friend and activist Farooq Khan in Ellwangen court with his appeal against the Local Courts condemnatory sentence for “assault” of a biting police dog.
We, the activists of the Refugee Initiative Schwäbisch Gmünd in alliance with the Nation-wide Caravan for the rights of refugees and migrants are calling in solidarity with Farooq Khan who is persecuted on his protest against police brutality.
We are demanding that the Judiciary court drop all faked up charges against our fellow activist who has been bitten by a police dog and is now facing the courts for “assault” while he was just defending himself from even more bite injuries
Date: June 17th 2015
Time: 9:00 am
Place: District Court Ellwangen Marktplatz 6, 73479 Ellwangen (Jagst)
Room: Court Room: Saal, s.Aushang
Contact: Farooq Khan (mobil: +4915218353998)
Political Repression of Refugee Community Schwäbisch Gmünd
It all started when we Refugees demanded that a CCTV-camera that was installed in the front of the isolation lager should be remove because it made us feel even more like living in a prison here in Germany.
The refugee camp social chief, Katja Rettenmaier (Heimleiter) escalated the issue by calling for the police, who came with dogs to attack us protesting refugees. Some of us were bitten by these police dogs while some others have been arrested but later were released after a peaceful demonstration in the front of the police station. At end of the day the CCTV-camera surveillance at the entrance area of the Lager was removed due to our consistent protests.
During this same struggle we traveled to Jena as to participate in a political workshop on self-empowerment, self-organization and on the campaigns and protest against the political repression of refugees in Germany and on human rights abuses in our countries of origins like Nigeria, Cameroon and Afghanistan organized by The VOICE Refugee Forum.
On our way to Jena we were controlled by the German Federal Police on Racial Profiling grounds but we didn’t comply with this racist practice. On arrival in Jena District Police Forces were already waiting in mutual assistance for the Federal Police Officers. We left our papers behind with the police and 2 days after we protested in the front of the local police station in Jena on this regard. So, when we got home, we received letters from the Schwäbisch Gmünd District Authority with a penalty charge notice of 103€ for each of us for breaking the law of “Residenzpflicht”. We refused to cooperate because paying these fines would have meant to legitimate this racist German law. Instead we publicly demanded for the abolition of this Apartheid law in Germany called “Residenzpflicht”. Afterwards we received quite a number of threatening letters and finally letters with the summons to report ourselves in Ellwangen prison for coercive detention. As we did participate in many protests against the “Residenzpflicht” law already we now started a campaign against the still ongoing persecution due to this law although early this year, the German Government announced the abolition of this very “Residenzpflicht” law.
Because we protested against bad living condition of the refugees in Deutschland the Head of Department of Integration and Maintenance in Ostalbkreis (Baden-Württemberg) Mr. Hans-Michael Betz wrote a letter to the BAMF that we are trouble makers and a threat to German society. The BAMF case managers should consider that fact in their decision making on our asylum cases. While some of the therein listed persons don’t know about the situation with their asylum cases yet or still await their interview, Raphael Paul already got a negative decision of the administrative court that also was informed of Mr. Betz’ letter through the BAMF by official notice right before the actual court hearing. With no fear of intimidation by the city police or Mr. Betz’ letter we still continued our peaceful protest campaign from Schwäbisch Gmünd to Stuttgart, Ellwagen among other cities in the region, now demanding that “Residenzpflicht” law and consecutive prosecution should really be abolished – completely and not only by pretend. We further embarked on a tour campaign for this demand in cities all over Germany which included Wuppertal, Hamburg, Bremen, Kiel, Konstanz, Berlin, Wittenberg, Jena, Erfurt and Memmingen.
After all we got to know about a letter from a parliamentarian in Stuttgart that the charges against us have been dropped, although till today we have never received any official letter from the Schwäbisch Gmünd authorities to declare abandonment of legal action.
As for now we still demand:
. Stop the political repressions of refugees and Police Brutality
. For urgent hearing of asylum cases without delay of interview by BAMF
. To drop all charges and persecutions connected to“Residenzpflicht” in Germany
. We demand for unconditioned rights to residence, Education and Work
. The closure of all isolation lagers like in Schwäbisch Gmünd
. A clarification letter from Schwäbisch Gmünd Authorities about the abandonment of legal action against us regarding the “violation of ‘Residenzpflicht’”
We call on Refugee community to unite against the deportation and Social exclusion of refugees.
Stop the deportation – Freedom of movement is everybody rights
Video documentation by CROSS-POINT – camera is a weapon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csb6zQKwGjE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWqsBKTwFH4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYIxVHs05dY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=148&v=OIVd_4whuoc
Background Information:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1599776406965905/#
(German/English)
The VOICE Refugee Forum
https://thevoiceforum.org/search/node/schw%C3%A4bisch%20gm%C3%BCnd
Refugee Initiative Schwäbisch Gmünd
https://www.facebook.com/refugeesinitiative