Ilyas Tahiri, 01.07.2019. Suffocated – Almeria

Ilyas was a young Moroccan from Tetouan who immigrated to Spain. According to the Ligue marocaine pour la défense des droits de l’homme (LMDDH) and a videosurveillance footage they obtained, the supervisors of the Tierras de Oria accommodation center for minors where he was detained transported Ilyas with his hands tied behind his back to a room. Once laid on his belly on the bed, six of them held him while one pressed on his back and neck with his knees during several minutes, which resulted in Ilyas suffocating and stopping breathing.

El Pais published the video footage proving Ilyas was not resisting nor being violent, raising serious doubt about the need to use such “mechanical contention“.

Almeria’s Attorney general described Ilyas‘ death as an “excessive force” used on the victim and amounting to an “accident“, to justify dropping the homicide case. Worse even, the coroner’s report concluded death by cardiac arrest and excluded death suffocation, in obvious contradiction with the video footage.

Mourad El Ajouti, representing the family and the Coalition Justice for Ilyas, lodged a request with the Tribunal of Almeria, demanding the case be reexamined.

The Collective was invited by the Spanish Parliament to talk about the use of the “mechanical contention protocol” in minor detention centers and the opportunity of a new legislation prohibiting such protocol. Later an Almeria judge sent a letter to the the Ginso Foundation announcing that for now the protocole would be put on hold in the Ginso center.