The death and trial of Oury Jalloh
Oury Jalloh, born in Sierra Leone, was in his mid-twenties when he burned to death in a police holding cell in the former East-German city of Dessau. The circumstances of his death still remain obscured, and at stake in finding our what happened to Jalloh are closure for his loved ones and a reckoning with forms of systemic police violence and institutional racism. The case, alongside the NSU cases, has been the most important policing case since German reunification.
Since 2008, I have worked alongside activists, community organisers and lawyers to help clarify and examine Jalloh’s death and the way his death has been treated by legal and policing institutions, media, and in broader social debates.
Trial Observation— Regional Court, 2010-12
From 2010 to 2012, I observed much of the trial. This was a retrial, allowed by way of appeal by the German Supreme Court and retried in the regional court of Magdeburg. I wrote Race in the Shadow of Law, in part, to analyse the handling of the trial in the broader context of race and racism in German law.
Since first becoming involved with the case of Jalloh’s death as a legal observer over a decade ago, I have worked closely with activists on the case, without which none of the advances into the circumstances of his death would ever have been made.
The International Independent Commission
In 2018, following calls from the UN to do so, a group of lawyers, academics and human rights activists from across Europe formally founded the International Independent Commission on the Death of Oury Jalloh, which seeks to investigate and report on the circumstances of his death using both interviews and what is in the public domain. Prior to this time, many members of the Commission were involved in the case, as trial observers and as members of a similar ad-hoc commission. The commission plans to launch its report in 2020/21.
Oury Jalloh and the law— Recent developments
In recent years, despite that the case and corresponding special investigation are formally coming to a close, questions around the circumstances of Jalloh’s death have persisted. I am currently examining the human rights dimension of similar deaths in custody in Europe, alongside working on the report of the International Independent Commission.
Various documentary films and journalistic reports have summarised the most recent developments in the case: view them in English [here] and German [here].