Penalty order against police officers who beat people
During a university occupation, a police officer attacked a journalist. He is now to pay a fine for assault in office.
The Tiergarten District Court in Berlin has issued a penal order against a police officer for attacking a journalist. At the request of the public prosecutor, the district court imposed a fine of 90 daily rates of 80 euros each, the Berlin public prosecutor's office announced on Friday.
The 32-year-old police officer is said to have wrongfully arrested and injured a journalist during the eviction of an institute at Humboldt University occupied by pro-Palestinian activists in May last year.
On the evening of May 23, 2024, the police cleared the Institute for Social Sciences in Berlin-Mitte, where several people had barricaded themselves. Ignacio Rosaslanda, a video reporter for the Berliner Zeitung , was also in the rooms to document the occupation and eviction.
According to the public prosecutor's office, he was visibly wearing a press pass around his neck and holding a camera and a cell phone in his hands. The police officer is said to have brought the journalist to the ground and handcuffed him anyway, causing the video journalist to suffer injuries to his face and body.
The young, thin man described the police officer's actions to the taz as follows: "He grabbed my backpack, turned me towards him and then punched me in the face twice in quick succession." One blow hit him on the temple, the second on the jaw. His cell phone, glasses and camera fell to the ground. The second blow caused him to fall to the ground himself.
A paramedic who was on site as part of a group of volunteers during the occupation told taz: "When we got to the 4th floor, the journalist was lying on the floor. He was handcuffed and a policeman was kneeling on his back." When the volunteer paramedics told the policeman to relieve the pressure on Rosaslanda's back, the policeman replied that he should not be told how to do his job.
It was only after three hours that Rosaslanda was allowed to leave and went to the emergency room at the Charité accompanied by a colleague. The doctor's report noted "multiple abrasions and hematomas above the left ear, on the face, on the chest and on the left arm," wrote the Berliner Zeitung .
The public prosecutor's office accuses the police officer of having to realise that the police action was not directed against the journalist, but against the occupiers. He is also said to have accepted that the man might be injured.
