Arrest in front of hookah bar: Essen family accuses the police "witch hunt"

For the Essen police, the incident was a clear thing. According to the press office, two officers routinely checked a shisha bar in downtown Essen on September 7, just before midnight. Then the situation escalated. "The officers were immediately attacked, beaten, kicked and strangled by several Lebanese-born individuals," a statement said. An official was seriously injured. She was then incapacitated.

Abdullah E., the alleged attacker and brother of the bar owner, is finally brought down by the police, arrested, arrested and taken away.

Shortly thereafter, the authority celebrates the deployment as another successful strike against the Lebanese family clans that have long caused the city problems. Nationwide is reported on the incident, the horror of the alleged brutality of the perpetrators is great. The police use the case as advertising in their own right. Only five days later, the Essen police chief appears in the program "Stern TV", talking about a parallel society that does not recognize the rule of law, its zero-tolerance strategy in the fight against large-scale criminal families and also refers to the operation before the "Buddy Bar" on the edge of the pedestrian zone.

However, according to several videos of the escalated arrest and conversations with those involved, the case is not so clear. The family has now filed a complaint with the Cologne prosecutor against the Essen police. In the 58-page long document, those concerned are, according to the SPIEGEL, seriously accused of the officials.

Among other things, they accuse the policemen involved in the attack of serious bodily injury in the office, right-wing and pretense of a criminal offense. The 17-year-old Abdullah E. should therefore have been abused in police custody and racially insulted. But also the Essen police chief made himself punishable with his television appearance. "From our point of view, that is libel and slander," says attorney Christiane Theile. "In this case, the police got the wrong people in. We advocate the zero-tolerance strategy, but it has to apply to everyone, including policemen who are punishable in office." Unlike the police, their clients have nothing to do with the clans. "

"This is a witch hunt"

Meanwhile, the case also occupied the interior committee of the North Rhine-Westphalian Landtag. There, the authorities announced further details of the investigation. Although there were, according to police against several of the seven brothers E. several preliminary investigations, including assault, theft and a drunk driving. In the end, there were two minor judgments, but most of the allegations were fizzled. Abdullah E. was convicted solely for a fake moped. "This family is well integrated, pays taxes, the children grew up here, they are a normal part of this society," says Theile.

That the boss of the Essen authority had the bar owner and his family without precise knowledge of the events publicly put in the pillory, unacceptable. "It's not just about the police officers who have lost every step in the mission, but also that there can be no general suspicion," says Theile. "This is a witch hunt, though."

Already controlling the bar was a bully, claims Ahmed E. "We know this policeman, he has us on the Kieker." It was not the first time he tried to prove anything to us, "said the bar owner. The official had become increasingly aggressive during the check. "It was all about making trouble," says Ahmed E.

In July 2015, he opened the Shisha Bar and discontinued his studies in Media Studies. The store is running well, he says. Apart from minor regulatory violations, nothing has ever happened here. From time to time, celebrities will also be guests, a professional soccer player from Schalke 04, for example. In order to promote his candidacy among the Lebanese-born population, Thomas Kufen appeared in the "Buddy Bar" in August 2015, shortly thereafter the CDU politician was elected mayor of Essen.

"I was scared to death"

Why did the situation escalate on that Friday night in early September? There are different views on this. At least there is agreement that after the checks one of the brothers should have used the official. Although the situation from the surveillance camera is peaceful until then, the policeman strips his gloves and sits in front of one of the brothers.

According to witnesses, he wants to take the man with him to the guard, who then towers. The officer picks up the persecution and falls. In the video, it seems as if Abdullah E. puts her on her leg - he himself says that he has no exact memory of it, but at best it was a reflex. However, of that, that he takes on the official, as the police will present later, there is no question. The officer scrambles up, goes to him, pushes him away, then it comes to a scuffle.

The video from the surveillance camera shows that the police are extremely harsh with the subsequent arrest of Abdullah E., who is only called a "thug" in the police press release. The policeman pulls him to the ground, slaps him on the head, clasps his neck and strangles his breath. An employee of the Essen rescue team, who happens to be in the area, rushes to help the officers and kneels on the back of E. Schreie can be heard. "I can not breathe," bellows Abdullah E. several times and tries to free himself from the grip. "I was scared to death," he recalls.

It can also be seen how some male persons attack the officials to help Abdullah E. The police officer is beaten, his colleague also kicked. She fights back with stick and pepper spray. Shortly thereafter, they let go of her again. When the situation calms down a bit, a second animal rescuer sprays Abdullah E. Pepper Spray, writhing on the ground, and the officer hits him with a club. Then he is handcuffed several feet above the ground dragged and placed in a patrol car.

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Recording of the security camera

The allegations about what happened after that weigh heavily. Abdullah E. describes it as follows: On the way to the guard, the same officer in the back seat continued to beat him and insulted him as a "son of a bitch". At the police station, the policeman kicked him down the stairs to the detention room, beat him again in the cell, put his fingers in his eye and called him "shit Lebanese." "When I arrived at the station, I thought that would stop now because anyone would intervene," says Abdullah, who wants to graduate next year. "But he just kept going and left me tied up in the cell." In support of her client's claim, attorney Theile demands the video footage from the station.

Bruises, sprain sprain

Twice that night, Abdullah was transferred. Why, that's unclear. After his release on Saturday morning from a detention cell in neighboring Gelsenkirchen, he made pictures to prove. The photos show him with blood-encrusted nose and wounds on the head, ears, legs and elbows. In the hospital, a doctor diagnoses bruises and a sprain of the cervical spine.

"It turns out that the incident did not happen as the police put it in the media," said defense lawyer Jan Czopka, who represents one of the accused brothers and supports the ad. "That the family is stigmatized in this way is not right."

The police will not comment on the concrete allegations due to the ongoing investigation, but remains in their presentation. Such controls are part of the zero-tolerance strategy, says Essen police spokesman Ulrich Faßbender. All the possibilities that the constitutional state offers would be exhausted. "The TV appearance was an opportunity for us to portray the entire complex of criminal clans and disrespect for the forces," Faßbender said. "It was not about defaming the family."

Whether the accused had clan connections, one could not say with certainty. "This question can be answered with 'yes' and 'no.' The structures are very complex." The bar is located in a district where the problems are known. That the family has now filed a complaint is not surprising. "It's the usual legal game, which happens 80 percent of the time when a police officer in action has to break the resistance by force," Faßbender said.

For bar owner Ahmed E. the incident also had economic consequences. Google has been hailing negative comments ever since. "Here there is hate, hatred and hatred again," wrote a user. Another: "After the police were attacked in the bastard I would close the shop !!!!"

Since the events, the police have the shisha bar three times with numerous officials searched, most recently on Friday evening, when the store was full, says Ahmed E. With it were also the public order, tax office and the fire department. The result: The TÜV of the fire extinguisher has expired and the latch on the emergency exit too loose, says Ahmed E.