Prague police beating scandal
Message from a Czech detainee.
from: reverendfeedback@priest.com

Here is just the latest of the testimonies about the Prague police beating scandal. I personally have listened to a taped testimony by an Israeli protester who was beaten twice as hard after the jailers learned he was a Jew.

I have two own nephews and plenty of adoptive nephews and nieces in age of 20-30. Many of them took part at the protests that were held in my country during the September Prague meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. One of them - a young man of 25 - was arrested during a peaceful protest. He was terribly beaten up and released after some 12 hours spent at the police station - same as most of the protestors. He filed an official complaint against the police brutality to the Inspection of the Czech Police (an analogy to the US Internal Affairs). His complaint was just received by the Director of the Inspection who promised to supervise the subsequent investigation personally. My kid's testimony could also support similar complaints which might been filed by the foreign persons (including one US citizen) mentioned inhere who were brutalized in the police station at the same time.

Our police has been declaring all the time that no excessive violence was used against the arrested protestors and that all the claims of police brutality and torture made by foreigners arrested during the protests were just lies. My nephew is not a liar and his bruises and contusions were real. I like him very much and I am really very angry this time!!! Many Czech policemen are racists and openly support skinheads and other ultra right-wing organizations. They are especially brutal when acting against young people. It is time to make them understand that times had changed, that totalitarian manners are no more allowed and that they have to respect our laws, too! Here follows a translation of my nephew's testimony which has triggered an investigation process that should take a few cop heads down. Many thanks for your attention.
With love, Your Czech friend Bushka
http://www.ubique.fbi.cz/freepeltier.html

Subject: My testimony on the police intervention

I was arrested in Vinohradska Street on 26.09.2000. Police intervention units on the streets were acting decisively, but without any useless violence or brutality. I was handcuffed and taken to a bus. Here we were waiting for about 30 minutes. The bus was filling up with arrested people in the meantime. I overheard a discussion of two policemen - I quote: "My pal, we have to catch a few more - everything was ransacked here and we haven't busted anybody yet". The bus got on the move after approximately 30 minutes and as I found out later, it drove through Lupacova Street in the direction of Zizkov quarter.
In that moment I believed not to be threatened in any way because I didn't commit any wrong and I thought that I would just go through an identity check, and be released after a while. The reality was going to be quite different. After the bus door opened and we were taken out on the street, I saw a group of policemen at the entry of the building. They welcomed with the words, "so they've arrived now - let's take them through the lane!". I received a hit with a bar (or maybe a night-stick) to the chest (being still handcuffed) right in the moment of entering at the police station and I fell down on the ground. I was hit again to my face and after a while they pulled me on my feet. This has been repeated again and again for some 20 minutes. After that, they ordered me to stand by the wall, I was taken all my personal effects away and my handcuffs were cut with a kitchen knife – here I was standing for approx. 10 minutes.
During the time I was being beaten or standing by the wall or when I was sitting at my cell, I had witnessed as several persons brought to the police station in the same time as me were tortured. There was a short haired German man who was beaten, but I couldn't watch the scene ("look at the wall, asshole!"). Also there was a long haired Italian, brutally beaten up every approx. 15 minutes by 3 to 5 policemen. He was beaten, although lying on the floor and begging for mercy.
All arrested persons were continuously being offended, both verbally and physically. Not one single policeman there was able to understand German, English, Italian or any other language except Czech. Policemen were talking to the arrested persons only in Czech and were pretty good amused by their confusion and their demands to communicate in foreign languages. The only English sentence that the policemen could say was: "Where are you from"? After the answer i.e. - "Germany" - followed a reaction: "Here you have one for Germany - here you are in Czechia!"
I also saw a short haired American - my later neighbor in the cell. He was being beaten during approximately 20 minutes. Out of what I could see I can say that this man was 15 times brought down to the ground with a night-stick or a fist, pulled up on his feet, beaten up, pulled up, beaten up, kicked, pulled up on his feet, beaten up, kicked, brought to the ground . He had also lost one tooth after being thrown on the bars. Naturally, he was also continuously offended verbally. The worst torture treatment was afflicted to a young man of a darker skin from Israel. This man was "cared for" by some 8 to 10 policemen. He was beaten, kicked to the head, to all the body and continuously offended verbally (also by racist statements). Policemen were shouting on him among other - I quote: "Haven't that asshole shitted in his pants, yet? We're gonna to treat you until you shit into your pants!" As in that moment it was clear that the very life of the young man was threatened, I couldn't support it anymore - so I protested against this treatment by the policemen because I could see on my own eyes how he was being tortured and it seemed to me that the sounds he was emitting (he was just wheezing) were his last ones.
My protests were not listened to - I was just told that if I say one more word and watch, it would be again my turn. In that moment I was already transferred to a cell. I don't know if all the policemen at that police station took part in the beating, nevertheless the noise and ferocity of the violence inside of the building was such that it couldn't be overheard. Neither I am able to identify exactly any of the persons there, as the policemen always stood in a such way that I couldn't see their faces. My fear was so overwhelming in that moment that I even didn't make any attempt to look at their faces or identification numbers.
An interesting moment had arrived when a policeman came in during the beating and said: "You idiots, take them somewhere to privacy and don't beat them up in front of witnesses!" The answer was: "We outnumber them, we will testify mutually in our favor and those assholes have got no chance!".
After this welcome "ceremony" we were split into the cells. After a certain time we were taken to make an official record for police files. No more torture was used there against us. I signed the record (saying among other that there was no beating at all) only because I was scared for my health and life.
We had spent a quiet night being continuously checked and - of course - verbally offended. A window had been left wide open during all the night and when we had asked it to be closed, we received the answer: "You're stinking like dirty cattle - no way closing it!"
In the morning before we were released they gave us a breakfast and again we witnessed that incapacity to explain to foreigners what they were supposed to sign (a record about having received the food). Bread was mouldy. After that, they took our photos, we were given back all our personal effects, signed a record about their reception and were released. That night has left me with a feeling that those policemen were acting in an obviously standard way and that this kind of treatment didn't represent any exceptional event to them. There was no arguing between policemen, just a day-to-day routine.

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