Canadian policeman who tasered Pole to death jailed
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
23.06.2015 09:11
The police officer who killed Pole Robert Dziekański at the Vancouver airport in 2007 has been handed a 30 month jail sentence.
A screenshot from an eyewitness video of Robert Dziekański being pinned down by RCMP oficers in 2007. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The judge ruled that RCMP officer, Kwesi Millington, who fired a stun gun at Dziekański in the airport’s interrogation room had committed “perjury and colluded with his fellow officers,” says cbc.ca.
"It is some justice finally, after almost eight years," said Dziekański’s mother, Zofia Cisowska, after the verdict was announced.
Dziekański, a Polish man in the process of immigrating to Canada, was seen by eyewitnesses to be visibly irritated in a customs detention room at the airport. A video which surfaced of the incident shows Dziekański throwing furniture around the small room. Later reports indicated that he was tired after a long flight from Poland and was frustrated at being held for hours until his visa application was processed. He did not speak English, and could not communicate effectively with authorities.
At one point, he was pinned to the ground by four RCMP officers and Millington fired his taser several times into the Pole.
The sentence was on the higher end of recommendations, because Millington's lies “stood in the way of getting a true explanation” at the inquiry, Supreme Court Judge William Ehrcke said at the hearing. (rg)
Source: PAP, cbc.ca