From July 20th to August 5th I was locked up in isolation. The first three days at the police station in Maastricht, after that at Ter Peel Prison. This was the reward for exercising my right to remain silent and refusing a state-funded lawyer.
A group of eight people took off all my clothes, including my underwear, in the presence of the warden and I was told that ”now you are a danger to yourself and your environment”.
My glasses were taken away and I had to put on some kind of prison rug. In the morning had to drag my mattress and blankets outside. I couldn’t see, I couldn’t lay down, only sit and stand in this barren cell. For the night I had to drag my mattress inside again.
I had a medical condition. A failing thyroid and low sugar level. I was refused my regular medication. Instead, the guards gave me unidentifiable, unpacked pills. Which I didn’t take.
At some point I lost consciousness and woke up at the Viecurie hospital in Venlo, hands cuffed with a long stick between the cuffs, like I was the enemy of the state. I was lying on a bed in a children’s room, not at the emergency room. Here an ultrasound scan was made. I urinated blood. I had to scream for help from a doctor, who actually did come, but wasn’t allowed to do anything and walked away. I fell from the bed, struggled to get up with those cuffs. Eventually I managed, but I was driven back to the prison without anything done.
During those days I got a meal with rice and some kind of sauce. After just a few bites my body became glowing hot, my heart started pounding and I slowly started to lose consciousness. I quickly pulled out my clothes, threw piles of water over me and started to vomit. Everything came out. After that, I drank liters of water.
Out of pure fear what was going to happen next, I regularly started hyperventilating. With secretly stashed away sandwich bags I was able to somewhat dampen it.
Every day of those two weeks a delegation with a doctor appeared at the cell door to check if I was far enough ‘gone’ to declare me legally insane.
Police took my passport from my home. As I found out later, nobody knew where I was. When the two weeks were over, I was threatened with more physical violence if I wouldn’t cooperate.
Law firm Moszkowicz saved my life.
On September 3rd – after another 4 weeks in an ‘normal’ cell – they released me and put a note in my hand: I was forbidden to ever say one word about the cause of death of the 8-year old Amir Ibrahim, that we discovered with our internet platform WGBO.nl.
