Amnesty International, Amnesty International Report 1995 - Austria, 1 January 1995, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a9f958.html [accessed 22 May 2013]
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Allegations were received of ill-treatment of detainees by police officers. In February the Austrian Parliament passed an amendment to the Law on Alternative Military Service, increasing the length of alternative service from 10 to 11 months. The length of military service was left unchanged at eight months. The new legislation also imposed new restrictions on the time limits within which conscientious objectors are able to submit applications for alternative service. A number of reports were received of ill-treatment in police custody. For example, in May, Naser Palushi, an ethnic Albanian from Kosovo province, Yugoslavia, alleged that he was kicked, jabbed behind the ears with a pen and hit in the face by officers of East Vienna Police Detention Centre. At the time Naser Palushi was on hunger-strike in protest against his detention following the rejection of his application for asylum. In April four officers of Vienna Provincial Court prison were acquitted of charges of ill-treating Turkish national Ahmet S. in March 1993 (see Amnesty International Report 1994). In delivering its ruling the court commented that although the prisoner's allegations were credible, it had not been possible to establish the identity of the officer responsible. In July two police officers were fined by Salzburg Regional Court for ill-treating Rudolf Reumann while he was held at a Salzburg police station in August 1992 (see Amnesty International Report 1994). Also in July the European Commission of Human Rights concluded that Ronald Ribitsch's rights under Article 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms had been violated. The Commission was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Ronald Ribitsch was subjected to physical violence amounting to inhuman and degrading treatment when he was held in police custody for three days in 1988. In January and March Amnesty International expressed concern to the authorities about the new time limits introduced for submitting applications for alternative military service. The organization pointed out that the new legislation took no account of the fact that a person's conscientiously held beliefs may change over time. In August Amnesty International asked the authorities for information about the steps taken to investigate the alleged ill-treatment of Naser Palushi. The organization received no substantive replies to its letters. In June Amnesty International published a report, Austria: The alleged ill-treatment of foreigners a summary of concerns.
