Policemen brought to court over suspicious death of young man from Lipljan: Gruesome videos of torture surface

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Five members of the Kosovo police, suspected of causing the death of 27-year-old Agon Zejnullahu from Lipljan, have been brought before the court in Pristina, that is expected to detain them.

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The Basic Prosecutor's Office in Pristina requested that they be kept in custody for 30 days, and a large number of media crews are present in front of the court today.

Zejnullahu died around midnight on Monday, July 7, in Haradin Bajrami Street in Lipljan. According to reports, he was handcuffed at the time of his death. The police officers claim that they intervened because Zejnullahu was under the influence of alcohol and was attacking vehicles and passers-by.

However, the videos published in the media indicate that disproportionate and brutal force was used during the intervetion. A video broadcast on T7 TV shows the officers using their knees to subdue the young man, while in another they are seen pulling him out of a car and knocking him onto the ground, trying to handcuff him.

The video also shows one of the officers throwing water in Zejnullahu's face in an attempt to revive him, but only once he no longer showed any signs of life.

A sergeant and four other police officers were arrested on Monday, and the case is at this time treated as a negligent murder. However, this event caused a strong reaction from the public throughout Kosovo and Metohija.

As a sign of protest, not far from the police station in Lipljan, graffiti appeared reading, "The police have blood on their hands", "The police are killing you", "The Kosovo police oppress you until they kill you" and "Who is protecting us from the police?"

The graffiti was signed by the Collective for Feminist Thought and Action, which also released a strongly worded statement about the case.

"The day before yesterday, some police officers violently arrested and killed Agon Zejnullahu in the middle of Lipljan. The police brutality that left Agon unable to breathe was not an isolated abuse of force and power, but a norm that pervades the relationship that the police have created with the civilians," the statement said.

It further points out that the shocking footage reveals "the violent nature of the police" but also represents "a critical moment for the collective consciousness."

"His murder, now visually seared into our memory, must force us to move, organize and oppose the violence that is never accidental and isolated. We call for social mobilization for the sake of the safety of each one of us and to seek postmortem justice for Agon," the statement concluded.

The investigation in this case is ongoing.

(Telegraf.rs/GazetaExpress)