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Brian has been dealing with the judiciary for years. He has now filed a criminal complaint. Allegations of torture should be investigated by an independent body.
Brian’s attorneys announced Monday that they were filing criminal charges on behalf of their client. They are calling for the torture allegations to be fully investigated by an independent body and for their immediate release. On the basis of an expert opinion, they demand the correct medical treatment and an investigation into medical errors.
The Zurich doctor André Seidenberg has dealt intensively with Brian’s state of health in recent months and came to the conclusion: “The medical treatments and examinations in the Pöschwies prison did not meet medical standards.” The medical treatment was always done through the cell door: “Basic practical technical standards and guidelines and also ethical standards were disregarded,” the doctor continued.
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«Brian was subjected to solitary confinement in violation of international law for more than a thousand days. His story, since childhood, is one of judicial and administrative failure, structural racism, aggressive media campaigns and repeated human rights violations,” the 25-year-old’s lawyers said. With the criminal complaint, the lawyers are asking for an investigation into the many allegations that have been made over the past year.
The criminal complaint is coming now, “because the authorities have remained inactive,” explains lawyer Thomas Häusermann: “Instead of pursuing the suspicion of torture, those responsible have tried desperately to sugarcoat the years of solitary confinement.”
In the meantime, Brian has been transferred to a remand prison, where he is in a “normal” prison in a ward with twenty other inmates. Before that, he was isolated for years because he was “too dangerous” according to the prison system. That was grotesque, according to lawyer Rambert: “Please don’t ask me why he should have been dangerous before. Rather ask them why he was consistently isolated from his fellow inmates for more than 3.5 years, when he is obviously not dangerous, which the prison and reintegration has just proven with the transfer itself. »
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In June 2021, Brian was convicted of attempted grievous bodily harm by the Zurich Higher Court. It is the most serious of 29 crimes he has committed behind bars. The court increased the prison sentence to six years and four months. Allegations of torture made headlines during the trial. The UN special rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, intervened at the federal level and wrote to demand better prison conditions. Brian is currently in an “inhumane detention regime” that violates the Anti-Torture Convention.
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In a statement by the Zurich judiciary published in August 2021, the allegations are firmly rejected. It states, among other things, that there is no evidence of ill-treatment or arbitrary detention. The conditions of detention are not objectionable. The measures taken are in accordance with the law, carefully considered and proportionate.
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Last spring Brian sued the Canton of Zurich for inhumane treatment in prison. He wanted 40,000 francs in compensation from the state. The court found that the conditions Brian was subjected to in Pfäffikon Prison in 2017 violated the provisions of the ECHR and the Federal Constitution and constituted a violation of privacy. However, it rejected the compensation because it had been forfeited.
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