Germany’s Federal Court of Justice has thrown out the appeal against the acquittal of all five police officers charged over the fatal shooting of Mouhamed Dramé in Dortmund. His brothers call the ruling “shocking”. Now they fear deportation to Senegal.

The decision by the Federal Court of Justice to dismiss the appeal against the acquittals of the five police officers charged in the case of Mouhamed Dramé, who was killed in a mental health crisis in Dortmund, has drawn criticism. “We are shocked that no one will now be held responsible for our brother’s death. We don’t know how we’re supposed to explain this to our family,” says Sidy Dramé, Mouhamed’s older brother, who has followed the proceedings as a joint plaintiff since the outset. The family’s lawyer, Lisa Grüter, also says she is “disappointed and angry” that, following the Dortmund Regional Court, the Court of Justice too has found nothing problematic about the escalated operation, despite what was in fact a “static situation”.

Mouhamed Lamine Dramé died on 8 August 2022 in Dortmund’s Nordstadt district after being hit by five shots fired from a police submachine gun. He had been leaning in a recess in the courtyard of a Catholic youth welfare facility, holding a knife to his stomach – presumably with suicidal intent. At no point was there any threat to other people at the facility or to the officers who arrived on the scene, as was established by the trial before the Dortmund Regional Court, which concluded in December 2024.

Public Prosecutor’s Office had argued “negligent homicide”

To disarm Mouhamed Dramé, the duty group leader had ordered the use of pepper spray and, in the event of escalation, also the submachine gun. Moving through the cloud of irritant gas, the young Senegalese man approached the officers with the knife still in his hand, at which point they first deployed tasers. An officer assigned as the cover shooter ultimately opened fire on Dramé.

After hearing the evidence, the Public Prosecutor’s Office had called for acquittals for four of the five defendants, on the grounds that the shooter – albeit mistakenly – had believed himself to be in a situation of self-defence. The Prosecutor accused the officer in command of negligent homicide, arguing that he had set the fatal chain of events in motion, and sought a suspended prison sentence.

The Dortmund Regional Court’s jury division did not follow that request: all the accused police officers were acquitted.

No “ammunition error” with taser

According to the court, the officer who fired the fatal shot, along with those who had used pepper spray and tasers, had been acting in self-defence. Nor did the Regional Court find any error or breach of duty on the part of the officer in command. The Federal Court of Justice has now upheld the Regional Court’s ruling.

The higher ruling has been seen by “nd”. It also justifies the acquittal of the officer who had loaded her taser with cartridges unsuited to the short distance involved, meaning the device failed to incapacitate Dramé. The Regional Court had examined a possible negligent homicide only in terms of an unavoidable mistaken belief in the existence of grounds for self-defence, but not in terms of an “ammunition error”.

The Court of Justice found no legal flaw in this: even a correctly loaded device, it argued, would not have been able to stop Dramé. This, the court held, was demonstrated by the use of a second officer’s taser.

Both sides’ appeals dismissed

The “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” was first to report on the court decision on Thursday, citing a spokeswoman for the Dortmund Regional Court. The Public Prosecutor’s Office’s appeal, which had been directed solely against the acquittal of the duty group leader, was dismissed as “unfounded”. The joint plaintiffs’ appeal, which had been directed against all the acquittals, was likewise dismissed.

Speaking to “nd”, the joint plaintiffs’ lawyer Grüter put the ruling into context. The Federal Court of Justice was following the Regional Court’s finding of a mistaken belief in the existence of grounds for self-defence, under which the shooter could have assumed his action was justified. There had also, she said, been inconsistencies in the witness statements given by those who later became defendants. “It is very sobering that there is no critical scrutiny here even at the highest level,” Grüter says.

“Injustice confirmed at the highest level”

“Injustice is being confirmed here at the highest level,” says Britta Rabe of the Committee for Fundamental Rights and Democracy in Cologne, commenting on the ruling. “The Federal Court of Justice’s decision sends a devastating signal – including to the many people affected and bereaved relatives who have lost loved ones to police violence and who are still fighting for clarity and justice before German courts,” adds Alex Freytag, spokesperson for the Solidarity Circle for Mouhamed.

Fatal police violence, Freytag says, continues to carry no consequences for those responsible – something that “could potentially be life-threatening for people affected by racism and people in mental health crises“.

Dispute over the brothers’ right to remain

The Committee for Fundamental Rights and the Solidarity Circle had followed the trial from the start and had also campaigned for Mouhamed Dramé’s brothers to be allowed to enter the country as joint plaintiffs. Now that the trial has ended, Dortmund’s immigration authority is demanding that the two brothers, Sidy and Lassana Dramé, leave the country, and has declined to extend their visas.

Criticism is growing on this front too: “Precisely because criminal law no longer offers any further answer, there is a growing responsibility on the part of politics and society to keep alive the memory of Mouhamed Dramé, to support his relatives, and to continue addressing publicly the questions raised by his death,” a statement from the committee and the solidarity circle reads.

“Where a person loses their life as a result of state action, society’s responsibility does not end with the final verdict,” the two organisations add. A majority of Dortmund’s city council has also spoken out in favour of exhausting existing legal options to allow the brothers to remain in Dortmund.

Published in German in „nd“.

Image: Sidy and Lassana Dramé are fighting together with lawyer Lisa Grüter for justice for their brother Mouhamed, who was killed by police gunfire (Friedrich Kraft).