Press release from the Friends of Refugee Solidarity on the »Mannheim Judgment«, delivered on April 13, 2022 Alassa Mfouapon ./. State of Baden-Württemberg – Circle of Friends of Refugee Solidarity in SI

Great political successes and a legal dance ball

Normally court judgments are announced at the end of a hearing or possibly at the end of the session day. In the case of the verdict on Alassa Mfouapon's appeal against the state of Baden-Württemberg on the illegal police operation on May 3, 2018, the first senate of the Administrative Court of Baden-Württemberg needed more than two weeks to formulate its verdict. Plaintiff Alassa Mfouapon said: "The judgment contains extremely significant advances in the democratic rights and freedoms for refugees and yet manages the feat of not upholding my appeal."

Alassa Mfouapon further emphasizes, “that the political protest and the legal steps against one of the largest police operations against refugees in Germany, which were initially viewed with some skepticism, played a central role in the progress made. In connection with the dispute, great progress was also made in the self-organization of the refugees and the solidarity movement associated with it.

He characterizes in detail seven significant political achievements of the judgment:

The VGH clearly follows the view that the room in a LEA/refugee accommodation is an apartment.
The VGH finds that the previous, different judgment of the Administrative Court of Stuttgart is accordingly wrong.
The VGH found that the statement by the representatives of the state of Baden-Württemberg that refugee accommodation was not apartments violated the law and the constitution. That alone is a resounding slap in the face for the green aura of being the guardians of human rights and “value-oriented” politics geared towards it.
The VGH determined that the so-called raid was illegal not only because of the "night time" (as the Stuttgart Administrative Court had already determined), but also because of an illegal interference with Article 13 of the Basic Law.
The VGH states that searches require a court order, the necessity of which has always been disputed by the state government and the police and which was also not available in the case of the L EA Ellwangen.
The VGH finds that essential passages of the house rules of the LEA Ellwangen are ineffective because they violate the law - by the way, not an isolated case, but ordered frequent practice in Baden-Württemberg.

Despite all these remarkable and politically significant statements, the somersault mortale then follows: the concrete complaint of Alassa Mfouapon is rejected. His room was not - as would be unlawful - searched, but only - as it is lawful - enter been. The difference is that he didn't fight back! He had to be handcuffed at least to express his resistance. Petra Sauter, spokeswoman for the Friends of Refugee Solidarity in North Rhine-Westphalia: 'Here the verdict is downright cynical. Who actively defends themselves in the environment of heavily armed police forces with police dogs who had the express order to use violence? And by the way: Alassa Mfouapon was convicted of resisting police officers in another trial, thus justifying brutal measures during his deportation.«

In plain language: in principle, the lawsuit is completely correct and appropriate, the state government and the police have seriously violated human rights - but Alassa Mfouapon's appeal is dismissed! Where else would one end up if a simple refugee were given justice against a state government led by Green Prime Minister Kretschmann and a police force led by Black Interior Minister Strobl? A refugee who cheated death in the internment camp in Libya and during the dramatic escape across the Mediterranean Sea, who, despite a shit storm of right-wing agitation from BILD to Alice Weidel and brutal deportation, has retained, even strengthened, his dignity and backbone?

But apparently the court itself is not entirely comfortable with this verdict. A decision follows – completely unusual – that documents another significant success: