Criminal proceedings against Samba Gey dropped

Created: 01/26/2022, 06:37

By: Thomas Zimmerly

The criminal case is off the table: Samba Gey.

© farewell

The criminal proceedings against the Malian refugee Samba Gey are (almost) over.

The district court of Dachau discontinued the proceedings against the 25-year-old yesterday.

Dachau

– The Samba Gey case made waves in the press. The young Malian, whose asylum application was finally rejected in 2019, had worked as an assistant in the Polz bakery in Ampermoching for four years; reliable, hardworking and without ever being sick, as his boss Thomas Polz said (we reported). Because he does not have a passport, the Dachau district office revoked his work permit in December 2021. Gey had to vacate his company apartment in the house of master baker Polz and move to the Haimhausen accommodation for asylum seekers; into a "dark hole", as refugee helper Peter Barth put it.

But that's not all: Gey was accused by the public prosecutor's office of illegal residence without a passport.

At the criminal trial yesterday before the Dachau district court, the prosecutor initially claimed that it would have been "possible and reasonable" for Gey to get a passport.

A good hour later, the prosecutor admitted that she was wrong on this crucial point.

She agreed to the dismissal of the case.

Judge Christian Calame suggested the setting.

The accused made "every effort that is possible," said the chairman.

And: "You can't demand that he also gets a passport." And Gey made an honest effort.

Countless attempts to get a passport

An employee of the specialist service for asylum and migration at Caritas Dachau, of which the 25-year-old was a client, noted no fewer than 27 (!) Meetings, as she said in the main hearing. Gey was also twice at Mali's embassy in Berlin, asked the Association of Malians in Bavaria for help, contacted Mali's Honorary Consul in Munich and had the Bertelsmann Foundation investigate in his home country. The 25-year-old now has a birth certificate and his father's death certificate. Only one important document is missing: the national identification number (Nina). This is now to get an uncle of the accused. So far without success. But it is precisely this point that the district office criticizes.

As a clerk at the authority testified on the witness stand, Gey had owned a passport that he said he lost when he fled across the Mediterranean from Turkey to Greece. "So he must also have had a Nina, otherwise he would not have received a passport," said the witness. It is possible for the accused to go to the Malian embassy at any time and register in a database there for compatriots. This would give you access to your Nina.

At this point, Gey's defender Felix Briesenick intervened.

He clarified that Malian passports would also be issued without Nina.

He himself had to have the database system explained to him before he understood it.

Then the lawyer asked the witness whether he had instructed his client about the database system, because "that is obligatory".

The man from the district office denied this.

hope for an uncle

Peter Barth, who is currently looking after 60 refugees, let the negotiators know that "the Malian embassy does not deal very intensively with the refugees".

Mali is an "extremely difficult country".

And the district office is not particularly successful when it comes to getting passports from there.

It is difficult for his protégé Samba to understand everything.

In the end, the case against Samba Gey was dropped – with the condition that he “must stay on the ball” from now on, according to Calame, when it comes to obtaining a passport.

Gey's uncle now plays a key role.

The 25-year-old himself has to report monthly.

If he does this reliably, the criminal proceedings are "closed" (Calame).

But what's next for Samba Gey?

Barth promised to talk to Stefan Löwl shortly.

He would like to persuade the district administrator that this Gey obtains an employment tolerance.

"I'm open to any kind of talks," said the district administrator yesterday when asked.

It is now a matter of “finding a solution – within the framework of what is legally possible”.

However, according to Barth, it could be that if Gey gets a passport, he will still be deported because he doesn't have a work permit.