The unexplained fire death of asylum seeker Oury Jalloh in a Dessau police cell is not re-investigated. The Federal Constitutional Court refuses to decide on a constitutional complaint against the termination of the proceedings.
The police and the public prosecutor’s office do not have to start any new investigations into the death by fire of asylum seeker Oury Jalloh in a Dessau police cell. The termination of the investigations did not violate the Basic Law, as the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled in a decision published on Thursday. The court did not accept his brother’s complaint against the closure of the investigation.
The highest German court said that the man was entitled to effective criminal prosecution. However, the decision of the Naumburg Higher Regional Court of October 22, 2019 takes this sufficiently into account. This had confirmed the setting.
Jalloh was found burned in a cell at the Dessau police station on January 7, 2005 – he was tied up on a mattress that had caught fire. The circumstances of death are considered unexplained even after two regional court processes. Relatives doubt that he should have set fire to his mattress himself.
In the opinion of the judges in Karlsruhe, the decision of the Naumburg Higher Regional Court did not exceed the requirements for the existence of sufficient suspicion. In particular, it was not based on the fact that an arson by Jalloh itself could not be ruled out, but on the contrary it explained that “a lot speaks for self-ignition” and that there is insufficient suspicion that other people have committed crimes.
