Sikh Turban Case:Warsaw Court Reviews CCTV, Adjourns Final Hearing Mid December

Oct. 28, 2011 - PRLog -- In the ongoing Case, the Judge viewed the CCTV footage of the five or so incidents in which the Sikh prosecuting  the Case had been stopped by the Warsaw Airport Border Guards. The CCTV showed clearly that he followed all the usual steps in preparing to go through the Security check - ie hand over of lap top, briefcase, watch, Kara, belt, metallic objects, coins etc and placed them on the scanner. Then he passed through the walk-through scanner - the Border Guards are seen stopping him (there is no sound recording - but it can be stated that the buzzer did not beep in most cases...).

The Guards are seen asking the Sikh to accompany them to a separate cabin - he collects his belongings and accompanies them to the Cabin - the Cabin does not have CCTV - in that place (rather a small claustrophobic area) the Guards start to harass the Sikh demanding that he remove his turban... his protestations that they should first check him with the hand held held  detector and other available means are not recorded, but the Guards ignore these requests .. and the Sikh is forced to remove his turban - else he would not be able to travel on his legitimate business.

Having been treated in this way on four occasions, the Sikh decided to take a stand, and on the CCTV footage of that event, he is seen refusing to go into the booth, asking to be checked in the public area, and then if there is no alarm, to be allowed to continue on with his legitimate journey... The Guards are seen to be ignoring this request - the situation runs on for over 30mins and the Sikh then  clips posters stating "Border Guards Harass Innocent Travellers" on to himself for other passengers to be aware of the situation - the Guards' insensitivity makes him miss his flight - but he continued to refuse to remove his turban without there being any evidence that it posed a threat.

The Judge did not make any comment on the 26th Oct - but has adjourned the Hearing till the 14th Dec. On that day a final CCTV footage of another, very serious escalation of the action by the Border Guards will be seen - when one of the Guards who was in Court previously to give evidence in the matter, and confirmed that he knew this particular Sikh from several previous checks, will be seen conspiring with another Guard to pointedly harass him on this occasion - which they did.

Following this event, the Border Guard made a second attempt to charge this Sikh traveller with obstruction. The Governments own Prosecution Office (Prokuratoria) has thrown out the attempt to charge him, stating quite plainly that the Guard in question "did not use all available means" to check the Turban before demanding its removal.

Among the many concerned people in Court were also present the Sikhs Bhai's from the Warsaw Sikh Community, who attended the Court to show support for the concern of all Sikhs in World, and especially the Gyani ji (Temple priest). who also attended, as he himself had been one such victim.

The Final Hearing is scheduled for the 14th Dec when the final CCTV will be seen and the prosecuting Sikh will give his detailed evidence, indicating that he had been molested in a most disgraceful manner on at least ten occasions at the airport, and in the e-forum discussion of the professional association of the Border Guards, and has been the subject of targeted attack by the soldiers of the Border Guard service, whose Komandent Glowny has so far taken little obvious action.