Two National Police fined 600 € for death of man under their guard

Two National Police who were accused of the death of Nigerian man have been fined just 600 €. It happened during a repatriation flight in 2007, when the police were guarding the man, and experts and forensic scientists told the court that the tape they used to gag the man ‘was not the direct cause of death’, but it was ‘stress and a lack of oxygen’. They said the reason the victim had problems breathing was not the gag, but the low air pressure because of the height of the flight. The case was held today, Thursday, in the seventh section of the Alicante Provincial Court, in Elche, and initial three year prison sentences were called for by the prosecutor, with a brief period out of the job without pay. But given the evidence of the experts the charges were dropped from involuntary homicide to a fault. At the end of proceedings, the instruction magistrate told some relatives of the victims who had travelled from Madrid for the case, that they could make a civil appeal provided they can prove that they are in fact related to the deceased.