THE Zimbabwean teenager who was repeatedly beaten, verbally abused and mocked during police questioning because he was black said yesterday he was going to press charges against his tormentors.
“My mother wants me to sue them so I’m going to go and see a lawyer on Monday,” said Henry Taylor, 18.
The Strovolos youth, who was beaten last month when he was called in for questioning over a police chase involving a black youth on a motorbike, said he was not very optimistic legal charges would amount to anything.
“If nothing happened to those 10 cops who beat those kids then nothing will happen to me,” he said.
The teenager was referring to the recent acquittal of 10 police officers in the December 2005 beating of Marcos Papageorgiou and Yiannis Nicolaou. Although the assault was recorded on tape, the court dismissed the charges on the grounds the 10 had not had a fair trial.
“If there was a video recording of that, then what chance do I have,” Taylor pointed out.
A close family friend, Lakis Argyrou, told the Mail the hospital was also dragging its feet and had yet to issue a medical certificate confirming Taylor’s injuries.
“It has been one month to the day when he was beaten and they haven’t given him the documentation certifying what happened. Henry filled in the forms and now the doctor is supposed to prepare the medical certificates. We’ve called them and they’re playing dumb. I’m going to have to go up there next week and make sure they get the forms filled,” he said.
Argyrou said police were also dragging their feet and they’d received no word about where the internal investigation was going.
“They are telling us nothing,” he said.
Although Taylor continues to believe he was the victim of racism, Argyrou believes his experience was yet another example of abuse of power.
“It’s is not so much racist as abuse of power by police. They feel they have power and use it. It isn’t related to his skin colour, but it’s their mentality. They don’t seem to discriminate colour,” he said.
Whether this is true or not remains to be seen when the Ombudswoman and Independent Police Complaints Commission complete their investigations into the beating.
Taylor said police had stopped harassing him since he’d made his experience public. However a friend of his, who had recently been arrested and his bike taken off him, had not been so lucky.
“They mentioned my name. They said ‘you hang out with Henry, that blackie. We’re not going to let you off’. He was taken to the same place they took me,” the teen said.
Taylor said he would go ahead with the legal suit because that was what his mother wanted.
“I’m waiting to see a lawyer on Monday to see what I can do… I don’t think there will be justice though,” he said.
Meanwhile Vice President of the Independent Police Complaints Commission Dr Despina Kyprianou said the matter was still under investigation.
“We have appointed two investigators and it is still not complete. Normally they hand the report to us when it’s been completed and we make a decision.”
Kyprianou said assault investigations took some time and did not conclude overnight.
“They need over a month for sure. They need to take statements, go to the hospital to retrieve the medical certificates, if there aren’t any they need to get a state pathologist report. All this takes time,” she said.
Sources close to Taylor said they were unsurprised by the Commission’s response.
“Of course that’s what they’ll say. They’ll try to bury it won’t they and hope it goes away,” he said.
