Austria: Alleged ill-treatment of Emad Faltas

Amnesty International is concerned that Austrian police officers belonging to the Vienna Drugs Squad allegedly ill-treated Emad Faltas, an Egyptian national, in Vienna on 21 June 1995. Faltas was attacked by four men after being approached by a woman at Vienna station who asked whether she could shelter under his umbrella. The men were plainclothes police officers who took Faltas to a police station where he was further ill-treated. Only then were his identification papers checked and his innocence established. Later that night he was taken to a prison hospital where x-rays revealed three broken ribs. It was also established that he had suffered cuts and bruises on his arms, stomach and face. A little while later he was released. He went immediately to a hospital where he was kept for seven days. A criminal investigation has been opened into the ill-treatment of Emad Faltas. Meanwhile, the Egyptian has himself been accused of “resisting State authority”.

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