Dragged off the plane with a neck hold, pushed to the ground handcuffed and beaten by the officers. It is the public denunciation of the Belgian footballer Stephane Omeonga with the Israeli Serie A team Bnei Sakhnin.
The midfielder, former Avellino (2016-2017), Genoa (2017-2019) and Pescara (2020-2021), on Christmas Day he boarded a direct flight from Brussels to Tel Aviv, with a stopover in Rome, but he was placed on Israel’s black list and once he arrived in Fiumicino was made to get off: “I tried to explain that I was a footballer, a Belgian citizen – the athlete pressed – but the officers didn’t stop and dragged me off the flight, beating me”.
According to what he learns Republic on Christmas Day the border police intervened on the company’s flight BZ 131 Blue Bird Airways Brussels-Tel Aviv, which had stopped at Fiumicino airport to pick up other passengers headed for Israel. The agents boarded at the request of the airline manager and the flight commander: the midfielder allegedly refused to get off the plane for about 20 minutes. After the intervention of the officers Omeonga was reported for resistence to a public official e injuries.
Yet the footballer’s version is different. Once off the plane, Omeonga reports in a post on Instagram, “far from the eyes of any witnesses, the police threw me to the ground and beat me: one of the policemen even pressed his knee against my head.”
Afterwards, he says, “I was taken to a police car and handcuffed like a criminal”. When the ambulance arrived “I was in shock – he continues – and I was unable to answer the doctors’ questions. From the radio of the police car I heard from the police that everything was fine and that I had refused medical treatment, I asked them to take me with them in an ambulance and I was put in one state of total humiliation for several hours.”
The player was later released. Subsequently, he continues, “I learned that an officer had filed a complaint against me for injuries that I caused him during the arrest, but I was handcuffed. So far I have not received any explanation.” Hence the public complaint via social media. The post is accompanied by a video shot by a passenger on the Rome-Tel Aviv flight. The video shows the officers getting on board, pounced on the midfielder and forcibly dragging him away.
“As a human being and as a father – insists Omeonga – I do not tolerate any form of discrimination. We must remain united and raise our voices to educate those around us”, underlining how, according to him, the intervention had a racist tone.
#Footballer #Omeonga #plane #beaten #police
–
