Information about the incident to the Committee on Interior
The issue was brought to the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia by the Social Democrat MP Thomas Koutsati. After the noise from the publication on social media of videos with police officers having immobilized the young Greek George Zantiotis on the ground outside the nightclub in Wuppertal, and trying to use force to immobilize him in order to handcuff him, Mr. Koutsati asked Home Secretary Herbert Royle to provide more information. What exactly happened and the arrest resulted in the death of the detainee in the police custody, but also because the incident was made public on Saturday, November 6, 5 days after his death. The briefing by Herbert Reil and a spokeswoman for the prosecution did not exceed 15 minutes, no questions asked.
“He died of a heart attack”
The German minister stressed that “at least according to the forensic report, the use of force can not be the cause of his death.” As we were informed by the head of the Wuppertal Prosecutor’s Office, Wolf-Tilman Baumert, according to the same report, Zantiotis did not suffer any injuries, nor did they open sutures from a previous abdominal operation. (SS had surgery to put a ring on his stomach). Acute myocardial infarction is cited as the cause of death, although as Mr. Baumert pointed out, it is difficult to confirm to someone when they have already died. The same report showed that the 25-year-old was suffering from a big heart. “We also know from another medical examination that he was under medical supervision due to heart problems,” says the head of the Prosecutor’s Office. “What his sister told us was that her brother got LSD that night. “And if one sees his aggressive and violent behavior the next morning, not only against his sister but also against the police, one is led to the conclusion that he acted under the influence of drugs and most likely the poisoning from the substances led to the heart attack”.
North Rhine-Westphalia Home Secretary Herbert Royle
Another point that raises questions is why when he was then handcuffed to the police station and he had calmed down, they took his blood and as a result he reacted violently again, kicking and trying to bite a police officer. Was it really so necessary to take the blood at that particular moment, to lose consciousness and die? “This is a standard test that is valid all over Germany. You were not in front of the blood draw, neither am I, we can only make assumptions,” the Rhineland-Westphalia interior minister told us. “It is clear, the man was violent, he resisted, he had to be arrested, and by taking blood he had to find out, if he took drugs, alcohol, what was the cause. The blood sampling was not done by any police officer, but by a doctor.”
“I made the decision not to publish”
But also because the Wuppertal Prosecutor’s Office did not issue a press release, as usual, on the day the Greek ended up in police custody. Did he want to keep quiet? “It is the responsibility of the prosecution, and the prosecution has decided whether or not to make it public, and when it will do so,” Roel told Deutsche Welle. “I think in this case he wanted to protect the family, but I do not know. Please ask him, and you will surely receive an answer. ” As the head of the Wuppertal Prosecutor’s Office, Wolf-Tilman Baumert, told us, he made the decision not to make it public.
“I can justify it to you. We have a 25-year-old man who was not labeled but made a big mistake under the influence of drugs. He transformed into another human being and did things he would never do. He first attacked his sister, then the police, behaved very badly and in the end lost his life. A tragic sequence of events. No one else is to blame, except the one who gave him drugs, whom we are looking for. And I respected the family. “But when the event came out on social media with the most improbable versions of his death, I decided to make it public, because I could no longer protect the young man’s family from the public debate about what happened.” As of yesterday, his body was given to the family. Her lawyer should be informed about the file, get all the opinions, reports and testimonies looking for answers.
DW: Irini Anastassopoulou, Dusseldorf
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