JALLOH v. GERMANY JUDGMENT
3
THE FACTS
I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE
9. The applicant was born in 1965 and lives in Cologne (Germany).
10. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be
summarised as follows.
A. Investigation proceedings
11. On 29 October 1993 four plain-clothes policemen observed the
applicant on at least two different occasions take a tiny plastic bag (a
so-called “bubble”) out of his mouth and hand it over to another person in
exchange for money. Believing that these bags contained drugs, the police
officers went to arrest the applicant, whereupon he swallowed another
bubble he still had in his mouth.
12. The police officers did not find any drugs on the applicant. Since
further delay might have frustrated the conduct of the investigation, the
public prosecutor ordered that emetics (Brechmittel) be administered to the
applicant by a doctor in order to provoke the regurgitation of the bag
(Exkorporation).
13. The applicant was taken to a hospital in Wuppertal-Elberfeld.
According to the Government, the doctor who was to administer the emetics
questioned the applicant about his medical history (a procedure known as
obtaining an anamnesis). This was disputed by the applicant, who claimed
that he had not been questioned by a doctor. As the applicant refused to take
the medication necessary to provoke vomiting, he was held down and
immobilised by four police officers. The doctor then forcibly administered
to him a salt solution and the emetic ipecacuanha syrup through a tube
introduced into his stomach through the nose. In addition, the doctor
injected him with apomorphine, another emetic that is a derivative of
morphine. As a result, the applicant regurgitated one bubble containing
0.2182 grams of cocaine. Approximately an hour and a half after being
arrested and taken to the hospital, the applicant was examined by a doctor
and declared fit for detention.
14. When visited by the police in his cell two hours after being given the
emetics, the applicant, who was found not to speak German, said in broken
English that he was too tired to make a statement about the alleged offence.
15. Pursuant to an arrest warrant that had been issued by the Wuppertal
District Court, the applicant was remanded in custody on 30 October 1993.
16. The applicant maintained that for three days following the treatment
to which he was subjected he was only able to drink soup and that his nose
repeatedly bled for two weeks because of wounds he had received when the