A doctor in Bremen, Germany, is on trial for negligent manslaughter in the death in 2004 of a suspected drug dealer in police custody. The suspect was forcibly given an emetic to retrieve cocaine capsules he had allegedly swallowed.
The man’s vomit entered his lungs, resulting in oxygen deficiency, while the doctor was present.
The procedure has subsequently been declared unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights, which in 2006 said it was a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhumane and degrading treatment.
But the doctor’s lawyer is claiming that the doctor was following guidelines that were in use at the time.
Thorsten Prange, a judge in Bremen District Court who also acts as court spokesman, said that if the 46 year old doctor is convicted he faces up to five years in prison or a fine that would be based on his salary or both.
Two court hearings were held in April and one this week. He said that a final hearing is scheduled for 15 May, at which the presiding judge will give a verdict or view further evidence.
Dr Prange said that under German law he was not allowed to give the name of the accused doctor. However, numerous press reports have named the doctor as Igor Volz and the man who died in police custody as Laye-Alama Condé, a 35 year old asylum seeker from Sierra Leone.
A court press release said that a man was arrested on 27 December 2004 for suspected cocaine dealing. To retrieve potential evidence a doctor working for the police administered an emetic and water through a tube inserted through the suspect’s nose into his stomach.
The suspect vomited several times but clenched his teeth tightly, resulting in the regurgitated contents of his stomach and water entering his lungs and causing oxygen deficiency. Emergency doctors were called, and the unconscious suspect was taken to a hospital, where he remained in a coma until he died on 7 January 2005.
In German news stories the accused doctor’s defence lawyer said that his client profoundly regretted the man’s death but that he was following accepted guidelines.
The procedure had, however, been condemned by the German Medical Association in 2002, when it declared that securing criminal evidence was a state procedure and that doctors could not be forced to participate.
Dr Prange said that the procedure was discontinued in Bremen after the suspect’s death and that potential evidence that is swallowed is now retrieved after passing through the suspect’s digestive tract.
