Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
May 9, 2019
A European Council watchdog committee has accused German police of mistreating an Afghan man being deported back to his homeland by squeezing his genitals.
“To ill-treat a person by squeezing the genitals, a technique which is clearly aimed at inflicting severe pain to gain compliance, is both excessive and inappropriate,” the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) said in a report released on May 9.
The committee said it had observed on a 2018 flight that a German federal police officer used the method on an Afghan man who was resisting being returned, while another officer held him with an arm around his neck so “the returnee started struggling to breathe.”
The committee recommended “immediate action to end the application of these two techniques.”
Berlin said it had sent the recommendation to federal police to take action.
The August 14, 2018 charter flight carried 46 Afghans from Munich to Kabul after their asylum requests had been denied.
CPT representatives were also on the flight, along with German police officers.
Based on reporting by AP and AFP