Eye Witness Reports
House Searches
Quotes from the eye witness reports (names deleted
to protect the witnesses)
House Search ***, innocent, in custody, reports:
*** was hand cuffed and put in the apartment block
hallway in his boxer shorts. Otto, ***'s dog, was standing
in the middle of the room. One officer kept his gun pointed
at the dog as a cage was put over him. He was left there,
barking, for over an hour, whilst the flat was searched.
The dog was left like that until the Viennese animal protection
association animal rescue came to pick him up. *** stood
in hand cuffs on the hallway throughout this entire time.
His neighbour watched the all the action. *** was refused
to call a trusted third party. He was also not allowed to
inform a lawyer.
House search *** and *** both accused but not
in custody: At around 6.30 am there were two loud
thumps on the door. We were both lying naked in bed. Seconds
later – before we had realised what was happening – four
officers with masks and drawn guns surrounded us and shouted
at us saying we shouldn't move or raise our hands [...]
*** tried to read the search warrant in the meantime. But
despite our strong insistence that they should wait with
the search, it was started before he could finish reading
it. At this point in time, we were not allowed to make a
telephone call. Because *** wanted to watch the search,
he didn't manage to read the information about legal rights
and was not informed about his right to consult a trusted
third party. [...] Then I brought the dogs into the kitchen,
during which an officer said to me “The muzzle stays on,
else there will be dead dogs”.
House Search ***: On Wednesday, 21.05.2008,
at 6 am, the apartment door was violently kicked in. The
doorbell was not rung beforehand. Around 20 to 30 police
officers and two special squad (Wega) officers, in full
kit, stormed the apartment. This was completely excessive
and disproportionate. At this point in time, *** was lying
naked in his bed. He was rudely awakened by officers and
threatened with guns. He was not allowed to inform or consult
a trusted third party or lawyer. While police officers performed
the house search, he was held in a room. Thus, he was refused
to witness the house search. Apart from that, the rooms
were searched simultaneously and therefore he does not know
which items were actually confiscated and whether there
was unnecessary damage to his property. He was simply presented
a list of seized items afterwards, including, for example,
books with left-wing political contents.
House search, *** office, written by ***:
On Wednesday 21.05.2008 at 6 am a car drove into our courtyard.
I found out later, that because we live in a semi-detached
house, two police officers had briefly knocked intensively
at my sister's house door. After having knocked once they
ripped open the unlocked door and intruded into my sister's
bedroom. They shouted my name and woke and terrified my
sister's 9 year old daughter, who was sleeping in her parent's
bedroom. Once their mistake had been clarified, the two
police officers didn't even bother to apologize. They left
the house and knocked very loudly and briefly on my front
door. The front door was not locked and so immediately after
that they were standing in my front hall, again shouting
my name. At that time, I was on the first floor in our bedroom
and had therefore had enough time to clothe myself lightly
and go downstairs. In the meantime the officers had pocketed
my mobile phone, that was lying in the kitchen and let me
know that they had orders to bring me to the office. They
said they knew no more and I was not allowed to make any
calls. They refused me all calls, even those to call off
my appointments. I was also given no further explanation
that would justify that ambush and deprivation of liberty.
I was forced to take a seat in the plain-clothes officers'
car as they drove me to Vienna. When we arrived at ****street
around 30 officers were waiting for us. [...]The officers
took all photo and film equipment, all video and photo materials,
almost all binders, the entire bookkeeping, all mobile phones
and all computers. In the end they banged on all the walls
looking for a safe.
House Search ***: At 6 am on the 21.05.2008
the door bell rang at my apartment. I went to the toilet
window, to look out. A number of police officers and men
in plain clothes were standing in front of my door and said
that there was going to be a house search. I said “What?”
The men in plain clothes that I should open the door immediately,
or else they would break it open. I said that I wanted to
put some clothes on. They replied that they would break
open the door if I didn't open it immediately. I put on
a pair of trousers and tried to reach a legal advisor. He
[transl: the legal advisor] picked up the phone and I told
him that there was a house search at my home. I understood
from him, that I should open the door a little in order
to be able to see the warrant. I went to the door, with
my mobile phone in my hand and still connected to him. The
people were really banging at the door. I unlocked the door
and wanted to open it just a slit. The door was pushed open
immediately with full force, I was pushed away. A person
in plain clothes held a badge in my face for a second. I
was heavily pushed back and my mobile phone was instantaneously
ripped out of my hand. I screamed that they shouldn't be
so brutal and should return my mobile phone. One plain clothes
officer (short dark hair, earpiece, dark blue jacket and
white and light blue striped shirt) who had thrown the mobile
phone out of my hand with force, held a finger in my face
and screamed at me that I had injured him. There was absolutely
nothing on his finger and I didn't injure anyone.[...] In
the meanwhile, I tried to read the search warrant and watch
how the search was progressing at the same time. Naturally,
I couldn't do both well enough under that stress.
Protocol from Memory by ***: On 21.05.2008
at around 6 am 6 special police officers (wega) and 5 criminal
police officers stormed our apartment in *** street. At
this point in time we were still asleep. I was awoken by
the dog's loud barking (***'s dog) and went downstairs into
our front hall without my visual aid. I could only see dark
shapes. I started to scream (“are you crazy”, “go away immediately”)
and grabbed the dog and disappeared with him into my second
room to calm him down. A masked wega-guy followed us and
demanded that I put the dog on a leash with a muzzle. Therefore,
I went back into our hallway/front room with the dog. I
found *** there, who had to stand with his hands on the
wall and was being held at gunpoint. He was then told to
put the dog on the leash, which he did, and put the muzzle
on him and went out of the flat with him and waited in the
hallway of the apartment block. I asked what was going on
and whether they were completely mad and then also went
out of the flat onto the hallway, where we were then given
the search warrant.
Life and Visits in Prison
Each detainee may be visited twice a week for half an hour
only. Only three visitors may be present during each visit.
The detainee remains behind a clear screen during the visit.
Communication is via telephone headsets only. This means
that only one person at a time can hear what the detainee
is saying. All conversations, both with the lawyers and
family and friends are listened in on and recorded. To date
none of the detainees have been allowed a telephone call.
All letters are also opened and read.
A number of people are in solitary confinement, others
share with one or three more people. Everyday, they are
allowed one hour of exercise in the courtyard, whereby this
is not granted on rainy days in Wien Josefstadt for example.
The detention centres have shops for detainees where newspapers,
drinks and letter writing paper and similar utensils can
be bought. Money cannot be given to the detainees in cash,
rather it must be deposited on an account. In smaller centres,
eg. Wiener Neustadt, the deposit is on the detainee's account
within 1-2 days, in Vienna it takes up to 10 days for the
deposit to arrive with the detainee.
Objects like books or vitamin tablets may not be brought
to the detainees, unless they have made a written request
for permission. They must make this request to the head
of the detention centre. The request must be approved. The
approval is communicated at the detention centre at which
point these items can then be bought and delivered. This
naturally makes it difficult to provide necessary items
to the detainees due to the permitted frequency of visits.
At first all detainees were held at the Wiener Neustadt
Remand Centre. On Wednesday, 28.05.08, the 10 animal protectionists
were separated from each other. 4 people were transferred
to Vienna, 2 to Eisenstadt (in Burgenland), and the last
4 remained in Wiener Neustadt (in Lower Austria).
Wiener Neustadt
Visits are only possible Mon, Wed, Thurs, and Fri morning
and Tues 13-17h. Seeing as you never know in advance how
long the wait will be, and it usually takes around 5h including
the journey from Vienna, each visitor must take time off
for each visit. On top of that there is a rule that each
visitor may only visit one person per day. This rule neither
exists in Eisenstadt nor in Vienna.
There is only one person to listen in on visits at the
Wiener Neustadt remand centre. There are around 200 detainees
in the centre, of those all detainees where the authorities
fear a risk of collusion must be listened in on, therefore
only six detainees can be visited per day. Registering your
visit early is also not a guarantee that you will be taken.
Seeing as registrations ahead of visiting hours are not
taken, this can mean that you are sent home after a few
hours, because the person who should listen in on your conversation
must leave. Thus, days are spent waiting for hours in order
to be allowed to speak to an animal protectionist for half
an hour. In the last weeks however, there was little interest
in visiting the other detainees (who are not animal protectionists).
Clothing can only be sent as a package by mail to the detention
centre in Wiener Neustadt, you cannot hand it over personally.
The detainees may shower twice a week only. If a visitor
comes during this shower slot, the shower is cancelled.
Currently, the detainees are washing their clothes in the
basin in their cell, because they have had no other opportunity
to wash clothes so far.
Judical Centre Vienna Josefstadt
At first it was unclear who was able to give permission
for visits in Vienna – Wiener Neustadt or the Vienna Centre.
This resulted in having lost the opportunity for some visits.
Vienna is a much larger detention centre yet there are
only two people who can listen in on visits there. Therefore
separate appointments are given, for example detainee XY
can only be visited on Wednesday at 9.30h and Thursday 9.30h.
A package of clothing can be deposited at the beginning
of detention at Vienna, the next package after two months.
No other clothes or packages may be sent by mail.
In contrast to Wiener Neustadt, letters cannot be handed
over at the centre but must be sent by mail.
The courtyard exercise is cancelled if there is rain.
Evening meals are served at 14h. Meals consist of white
bread, white pasta, potatoes and similar.
Requests for reading material are collected and approved
once a week only.
Eisenstadt
Visits are possible Mon-Thurs from 12 – 15h.
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