Content warning: this website contains mentions of death, suicide, police violence, racism and physical injuries. 

On February 25, 2019, 22-year-old Rooble Warsame died in police custody in Schweinfurt, Germany, just hours after his arrest.

Rooble was a young Black asylum seeker from Somalia, living in an Anchor Centre, one of Germany’s immigration detention centres. He and his friends often experienced racism from police and German locals, as well as structural racism and violence from the border and immigration system. 

Despite evidence suggesting otherwise, the police and prosecution judged Rooble’s death a suicide. The investigation against the Police Officers involved was insufficient. We challenge this conclusion, as a lot of important details are missing:

• Rooble was in close and consistent contact with his family, and never expressed any suicidal ideation.
• Rooble and his friend were arrested together at the Asylum Seeker Centre. However, Rooble’s friend was released the next day, was not interviewed as a witness, and has been missing for several years.
• Rooble’s cousin, who visited the cell, recalls: ‘The cell was two [by] four metres long. We searched everything. It is not possible to commit suicide in this space. Unless one continuously bangs one’s head against the wall, or strangles themselves with their own hands. There were no [things] in the room…no hook, no rope, no opening to attach anything to.’
• The autopsy did not rule out murder, and officers have failed to provide evidence of how one would commit suicide in the way they claim Rooble did. 

We are also suspicious of how the police treated the family after Rooble’s death:

• The police refused to cooperate with Rooble’s family and would not grant them access to see the cell where he died. Only with persistent demands and legal assistance did they cooperate. 
• The police were eager to cremate Roobles’ body as soon as possible, only prevented by the mosque community who insisted on giving Rooble an Islamic burial. Those who saw his body before he was washed by the Imam claim they saw horrific injuries, clearly indicating a struggle rather than a suicide. He was, they say, covered in fresh wounds, nail scratches, a knee injury, and no marks indicating self-strangulation.
• Uniformed and non-uniformed police officers were present on the day of the burial, which we believe was to intimidate and/or surveil the family