Victim expelled – Viennese police officer convicted of abuse of office

“I see my mistake. I should have gone into the whole matter more. In retrospect, that is not a good picture, I do not want to deny that,” said the 51-year-old on Thursday before a jury panel of the Vienna court. He was brought there by a recording of a conversation with a victim of police brutality who wanted to report this to the officer about three years ago. The Chechen native was beaten up by the police at a gambling club in Favoriten on January 13, 2019. They had been called about an alleged scuffle and had an ID check.

Fine of 2500 euros
When the man wanted to report the incident to the police station the next day, the 51-year-old “shook him off”. Instead, he should contact the internal police registration office and “complain at the Schottenring,” the recording reads. “It wasn’t like I was trying to kick him out at all,” the accused assured the jury.

He “just reacted wrong”. Because of this confession, the previous clean criminal record and because the court classified the crime “in the lowest category of abuse of office”, the official was only sentenced to a fine of 2,500 euros. Once this is paid, the ad will be set aside and the proceedings will be temporarily suspended. The police officer was never suspended from his position.

Six officers convicted
The situation is different with his violent colleagues. As reported, six police officers were convicted by the regional court in July 2021 as a result of the incident. The two direct perpetrators were given suspended prison terms of 12 and 10 months respectively for abuse of office and bodily harm. Four other officers were sentenced to probation for witnessing assaults without intervening or failing to document the actual act of violence.

It is not clear why the officers turned violent. Born in Chechnya, he had to be treated in hospital for his injuries. At the time of the crime, there was only one other non-uniformed man in the bar besides him.