A German policeman, on trial for the second time over the death of a black immigrant in police custody, broke his silence in court on Friday, according to dpa. The death of Oury Jalloh, 23, in a fire in his cell on January 7, 2005, generated much debate in Germany, where anti-discrimination groups alleged police abuse. The 50-year-old officer said he regretted that it did not occur to him that there could be a fire in the cell, despite alarms goind off. "Sub-consicously I must have thought it was a malfunction," he said in a statement to the court in Magdeburg. He did not notice the fire until he opened the door to the cell, by which stage Jalloh had already died from inhaling the scorching fumes of a burning mattress. The court earlier heard that Jalloh, a Sierra Leonean who had applied for political asylum in Germany, was drunk when he was arrested. He was shackled by the hands and feet while he was left to sober up. Police claimed he set fire to the mattress himself with a cigarette lighter. The policeman, who was acquitted in an earlier trial in the town of Dessau, is charged with causing bodily harm with fatal consequences.
