Prisoner Abuse Accusations Surface in Eastern Germany

[Dirk39]

In prisons in the former East Germany, guards regularly beat and mistreated prisoners. Now reports have surfaced that in one prison in the region, that practice has continued.


Masked guards beating up inmates with truncheons, broken bones and heart attacks induced by physical abuse. These are the images associated with the torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers in the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.

But recent revelations have shown that prisoner abuse can happen much closer to home. A regional broadcaster in eastern Germany has aired claims that prisoners in a penal institution in the state of Brandenburg were mistreated by guards.

The news first surfaced after a regional television station, RBB, aired a film about attacks on inmates at the Brandenburg/Havel prison between 2001 and 2004. The report was based on statements by two former victims and one current inmate of the prison, who said that masked prison officers would often come into the cells in groups of three or four and rough up the prisoners with their fists and batons. They said that some prisoners suffered broken bones and other serious injuries.

http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1432_A_1199266_1_A,00.html


Hello from Germany,
Dirk