The Mysterious Death of Uri Yalow

This is the story of Germany's strangest unsolved mystery. On January 7, 2005, a man was found burned alive in a police cell. The police claim it was a suicide. The man was alone in his cell and set his mattress on fire. But he was restrained. His wrists and ankles were shackled. The mattress was fireproof. And he had no lighter on him to ignite a blaze. So how did he burn to death? Nearly 20 years have gone by, and we still don't know what really happened that day. Activists, lawyers, and nonprofits are still trying to uncover the truth. In this video, we're diving into the conflicting stories, the unanswered questions, and the evidence that's kept this case alive. Pay close attention. Every detail matters. Dessau is a city in Eastern Germany. It's early morning. Let's start with the version of events as told by the local police. Shortly after 8 a.m., the phone rings at Dessau police station. Beate H., the officer in charge of patrols today, picks up. A woman from the city cleaning crew claims that she and her colleagues are being harassed. She asks for police assistance. Beate H. calls patrol officers Hans-Ulrich M. and Udo S. She tells them that four women from the city cleaning crew are being harassed by a foreigner, quite aggressively even. She also says the man has tried to grope them. Patrol officers Hans-Ulrich M. and Udo S. arrive at the scene. A man called Uri Jallo is standing about 10 to 20 meters away from the women, leaning against a wall. He seems to have been partying and is visibly drunk. The officers request to see his ID, but Jallo refuses. They handcuff him and put him into their patrol car to confirm his ID back at the station. Yellow is still handcuffed when the two officers bring him to the medical room in the station's basement. They search him and check his pockets. Yellow resists, banging his head against a wall and table in the act. In his pockets, they find a temporary residence permit. It's crumpled and the birth year is illegible. The officers decide to detain him until they can confirm his identity. Dr. B, the on-call doctor, arrives to take a blood sample. Yalo resists again. The officers pin him down on the stretcher while the ME draws his blood. His BAC is at 2.98%. That's extremely high. Enough to make him lose his conscience or even induce a coma. The two men are joined by a third officer and together they take Yalo to holding cell number 5. They handcuff him to the bed frame by his hands and feet, because they're worried he might harm himself. They step out of the cell and lock the door, leaving Yalow alone. Udo S. and Hans-Ulrich M. finish up some paperwork before heading back out on patrol. Shift supervisor Andreas S. and his deputy Beate H. are informed by a colleague that someone has been restrained in cell number 5. Beate H. turns on the intercom to monitor the inmate's activity. There's no video surveillance. Uri Yalow repeatedly asks to be uncuffed. She tells them to calm down. Beate H hears a rattling noise through the intercom. She assumes it's just routine movement during a cell check and doesn't think much of it. Shortly after, Beate H and her colleague SCH perform a cell check. Yellow seems to have calmed down. They lock the door to her cell and head back upstairs. Over the intercom, Beate H hears Oriyalo call out again, demanding to be uncuffed. Andreas S. is about to make a phone call, so he turns the intercom volume down. Beate H hears a strange noise, like something rustling and splashing, followed by a piercing beep. The fire alarm. Andreas S. assumes it's a false alarm, and turns it off. Yalo starts yelling for help. The fire alarm goes off again. Through the intercom they can hear the crackling sound of flames. Beate H tells her superior, Go check already. Move. According to the report, the last words Beate H hears from Uri Yalo are, Untie me. Fire. Andreas S. heads down to the basement and opens the door to cell number 5. The fire is intense and the room is filled with thick black smoke. Beate H. calls the fire department, saying they could use a fire truck. By the time the firefighters arrive, Yellow is already long dead. The mattress has burned to ash. His body is charred down to deep skin layers. After the fire, the criminal PD in Stendal, a city close by, picks up the investigation. Despite standard protocol, they do not consult a fire expert. The crime scene crew sweeps up the debris from the fire. They will later find a lighter in the ashes. Witnesses are interviewed, evidence is collected. The state criminal police sends a videographer to document the forensic process. At this point, the police are already convinced that Jalo has set the fire himself. They believe he was trying to get their attention, so they would uncuff him. Then the fire must have gotten out of control. That same day, Uri Yalo's body is transferred to the forensic medicine in Halle. The coroner there finds no sign of violence inflicted prior to the fire. Yalo's skull appears to be intact. This is the official version of the events. It's the version recounted in exhaustive detail at a local court in 2007. The trial is supposed to shed light on what happened that Friday morning. Almost all witnesses are government officials, most of them police. The trial lasts 59 days, stretched over a year and a half. Standing trial are Andreas S. and Hans-Ulrich M. S. faces charges for ignoring the fire alarm. M. allegedly failed to find the lighter when he patted down Uriallo. They are both acquitted. This video really matters to us. We've poured months of research, care and effort into telling this story. Tackling such important topics wouldn't be possible without the support of great sponsors. Brilliant is a hands-on learning platform that combines engaging video tutorials with interactive learning-by-doing lessons. It offers thousands of courses in math, data analysis, programming and AI. Their first principles approach breaks down complex ideas into simple, digestible steps. That way, they help you truly understand concepts from the ground up. Kind of similar to what we're trying to achieve with our own videos. If you like those, you'll love Brilliant. The goal is to not just absorb information, but to gain real skills. Dive into programming projects that mimic real-world challenges, explore the inner workings of AI systems like ChatGPT, or analyze data to uncover hidden patterns. Scan this QR code or visit brilliant.org slash fern to explore everything Brilliant has to offer, free, for 30 days. Plus, enjoy 20% off an annual premium subscription when you sign up. The trial raises countless questions. Witnesses either clam up or contradict themselves. Memories are foggy, and crucial pieces of evidence have vanished in mysterious fashion. From the very start, it feels like everyone involved is closing ranks and covering for each Even the judge is appalled. What we have seen here was not a fair trial. Police officers who should be upholding justice have prevented any chance of finding the truth. None of those officers who lie to us here should be entitled to wear a badge in this country. About four years later, there is an extensive retrial at a regional court. This time, duty chief Andreas S. is convicted of involuntary manslaughter and fined about $15,000. The verdict sends shockwaves through Germany. Activists, journalists and legal experts pick up on the case. The Initiative in Memory of Uri Yalow, established back in 2005, gains wide support. Today there are thousands of pages of investigation files, court documents, expert reports, reports, parliamentary inquiries, fire experiments, forensic exams and filtered court letters. Medical examiners, fire experts, chemists, radiologists, toxicologists and criminologists have all pored over the case. Their findings fundamentally contradict the official version of events as stated by the police. Almost every detail in the official story is riddled with inconsistencies, misconduct and unsolved questions. So, let's take another look at what happened that morning on January 7, 2005. According to the women on the city cleaning crew, Uri Yalo followed them and asked if he could use one of their phones. At one point, he tugged on one of the women's backpacks. Over the phone with Beate H., they described feeling quote, harassed. But when Beate H. relays this to the patrol officers on the phone, she exaggerates. She says the cleaners have been massively harassed and claims Yalow was trying to grope the women. Gabriele Heinecke has represented Yalow's family as a lawyer and followed the case for over 10 years. The officers arrive at the scene. They find Jalo standing several meters away from the women, leaning against a wall, completely drunk. The situation has already diffused. Still, Hans-Ulrich M. and Udo S. approach Jalo and say, Passport, amigo. He refuses. Both officers are tall, while Uri is slim and only 5'7", about 170 centimeters. He doesn't stand a chance. He is forced to the ground and pushed into the patrol car. Legal experts will later conclude that this has been an unlawful detention. The officers should have provided a reason for demanding to see his ID. They are also not allowed to use force on anyone without prior warning. According to the police, Uri Yalo banked his head against the wall and table. There will in fact be a blood stain found and attributed to Yalo, but the blood is never tested to see if it matches his DNA. And Oddly enough, it is found on the leg of the table. The police also claim they had to hold him in custody to confirm his ID. But the truth is that at this point, Yalo's complete details were already recorded in the custody log, including his supposedly eligible year of birth. Around this time, shift supervisor Andreas S. reaches out to the on-call Dr. B. The exchange is documented in the court record. We need you to come in. What's up? Just a blood test. Alright, I'll handle it. You'll get to pinch a black African. Holy shit, I can never find a vein with these dark-skinned folks. Well, bring a special needle then. Will do. Dr. B proceeds to draw blood from Yellow. Udo S. and Hans-Ulrich M. insist that Yellow was extremely aggressive. They claim he put up such a fight they had to restrain him so Dr. B could go through with it. Three other officers, who were partly present during the scene, will later contradict this account. According to them, there were no disturbances. During the first trial, even Dr. B himself confirmed things went smoothly when he drew the blood. During the retrial, however, he refused to testify. Physically restraining someone and holding them down to draw blood without their consent is a serious violation of basic rights. And doing so without a formal warrant is straight up illegal. Uri Yalo should have been released by now. Instead, three police officers escort him from the medical room to cell number 5. They proceed to chain his hands and feet to the bed. Beate H hears some clattering sounds over the intercom. She assumes it's a routine cell check. However, no cell inspection is recorded in the custody log for 11.30 am. At the same time, officer Thorsten B. heads down to the custody area, looking for colleagues to join him for lunch. Through the open door of cell number 5, he sees Udo S. standing at the head of Uriallo's bed, and Hans-Ulrich M. patting down his thighs. He asks them if they want to grab lunch with him. They respond by saying they're still busy. Udo S. and Hans-Ulrich M. will later deny this encounter. They claim to have been out on patrol at that time. All patrol activities are usually logged in a duty logbook. But the log for that day mysteriously disappeared. Beate H. and her colleague S.C.H. from the traffic unit conduct a cell check. Jello wants to know why he is shackled. To which Beate H. replies something along the lines of, you know why. She later recalls noticing that his pants were unbuttoned and pulled down a little, although his hands were chained in a way that would have made it impossible for him to undo his pants himself. She also spots a puddle of liquid right next to his mattress. It's not urine. Despite these strange details, she wraps up the inspection and leaves the cell. According to the police version of events, This is when Uri Yalo must have started tearing apart the mattress and setting it on fire. But was that actually possible? Could someone really start such a devastating fire with just a simple lighter and some mattress foam? This experiment was commissioned by the Initiative in Memory of Uri Yalo and conducted by Irish fire expert Maxim Smyrnu. He recreated the exact conditions in cell number 5. After more than one hour of combustion time, this is how the cell looks like. And this is what cell number 5 in Dessau looked like after the fire. Experiments like these often use pig carcasses. The way they burn closely resembles the fire behavior on human bodies. In the test, the dummy body sustained only minor burns to one of the legs. But Yellow's body was charred down to deep tissue layers. will spare you the images. Also, the experiment produced white smoke, while in cell number 5 there was thick black smoke with heavy soot deposits. So how could the fire have gotten so intense? In another test, the experts doused a pig carcass with 5 liters of petrol before setting it on fire. Go away, go away! The resulting burn patterns were the most similar to those in cell number 5. The experts concluded that it was most likely that petrol has been used to accelerate the fire. Beate H. claims Uri Yalos last words were untimely fire. But that is highly doubtful. The autopsy showed no carbon monoxide in Yalos body. If he had burned alive, he would have inhaled the poisonous gas. Neither did the examiners find any noradrenaline, a hormone automatically released by the body under physical stress. Both findings suggest that Yellow was unconscious when the fire started. But why would Uriyallo have been unconscious before the fire? After all, the initial autopsy reported no injuries. In 2019, researchers at Frankfurt Universal Hospital used advanced technology to reassess the CT scan images from 2005. This time, the images revealed that Yalow sustained multiple severe injuries before his death. A broken nasal bone, a fractured skull, a ruptured nasal septum, and a broken rib. All these findings strongly suggest that Yalow was physically abused before his death. According to Officer Andreas S., This is the first time he opened cell number 5 since the fire broke out. But a team at British research group Forensic Architecture thoroughly reconstructed the smoke patterns in the cell. Their analysis suggests that the cell door must have been opened during the fire. This directly contradicts the account of Andreas S. The police claim that Uriallo used a lighter to set himself on fire. But when forensic investigators examine cell number 5 after the fire, they do not find any lighter in the debris. It only turns up three days later, when a bag of debris from the scene is re-examined. To this day, no one can explain how it got there. Also, the lighter was melted. Fire experts point out it would have exploded if it had been in the fire. Upon further inspection, investigators found clumps of red fiber fused into the lighter's plastic. If the lighter had been at the scene, these fibers should have matched something, anything from the cell. They didn't. So, was that lighter ever in cell number 5 or not? That should have been easy to determine. The two-hour crime scene investigation was supposed to be fully documented on tape by videographer Jens W. from the state criminal police. But his recording simply cuts off. after just four minutes. Jens W. will later claim there was a power outage. His statement can not be corroborated by other witnesses. Besides, the camera had a working battery. That very same day, shortly after the recording, Jens W. goes on sick leave for two months, supposedly due to an allergy. In the days following the fire, key pieces of evidence disappear under mysterious circumstances. Files containing entries related to Yellow are deleted from police computers, including their backups. A log of the 70 people present at the station that morning, gone. Photos taken by officers on the day of the incident, missing. Surveillance footage from the station hallway, simply vanished. An unlawful arrest and blood draw. A blood stain that was never tested. An unnecessary detention to confirm an ID. already confirmed and documented. Violence used to restrain aggressive behavior that no one else has witnessed. Officers who claim to have been elsewhere but have been seen on sight. An unidentified liquid on the floor. Pants pulled down for no apparent reason. A lighter that cannot be linked to the crime scene. Fire behavior that can only be replicated with several liters of accelerant. Multiple bone fractures suggesting severe physical abuse. A cell door is said to be locked that must have been opened during the fire. A CSI documentation video mysteriously cutting off when things get serious. A baffling series of errors and countless items of conveniently missing evidence. Nearly every expert who has examined the case agrees. Uriyalo cannot possibly have set himself on fire. Which would mean that someone else must have done it. When you put together all the pieces of information, a chilling and deeply unsettling picture begins to take shape. Here's what might have really happened on the morning of January 7, 2005. Uri Yalow, heavily intoxicated, was taken to the police station under a false pretense. While in custody, he was brutally assaulted and suffered multiple fractures, possibly leaving him unconscious. Then, somebody poured accelerant over him and set him on fire. But who? And why? Shift supervisor Andreas S. turned down the fire alarm. Twice, according to Beate H.'s initial testimony. Once in his own account. Either way, 11 minutes passed from the first fire alarm to the moment he finally checked on yellow, according to the public prosecutor's office. But it wasn't him. He was in the second floor control room when the fire happened, but he probably knows more than he's letting on. Then, there's Beate H. Her testimony changed several times. She implicated her superior Andreas S. in the first trial, only to later recant after meeting with him and his lawyers. She insists she heard Jalloh's cries for help through the intercom while the fire raged, although he was most probably already unconscious by then. She too, might know more than she's learning on. Hans-Ulrich M. was the one who arrested Uriyello, searched him, handcuffed him to the bed in cell number 5. One of his colleagues claims to have seen him in the cell shortly before Yalos'death, but M. insists he was out on patrol. He was acquitted during the first trial, despite having no verifiable alibi to back his story. Udo S. was the first officer to approach Uriyello on the street and demand his ID. He was restraining Jalloh in a headlock during the patrol car ride. Witnesses claim to have seen him in the cell with Hans Ulrich M. just before Jalloh's death. And just like his colleague, he has no verifiable alibi for the time of the incident. According to German press, eight years later, a source informed the Dessau PD that Udo S. had previously worked as a firefighter specializing in pyrotechnics. Supposedly, he could have known exactly how to quickly start a fire intense enough to leave no traces. No one ever followed up on that lead. Instead, the article reports there was a defamation lawsuit filed against the source. Andreas S. was fined, and Hans-Ulrich M. acquitted. But oddly enough, no murder investigation was ever launched against Udo S. But there was someone else. Apparently there was an unidentified male present at the station during the fire. One officer recalls walking past someone at the stairwell. A shadow. The man appears to have been watching the fire brigade arrive from the control room window. Court documents only refer to him as another man with glasses. In 2013, an informant reached out to one of the journalists following the case. He said he knows who is responsible for Yellow's death. He claimed the perpetrator entered the station's custody area through a back door. A door secured with a code that only police officers could know. According to the informant, the whole thing was about racism and sexual humiliation. Someone wanted to teach Uri Yalo a lesson and went too far. Could this have been a possible motivation? To teach a heavily intoxicated and utterly defenseless man a lesson? In fact, the Dessau PD appears to have a troubling history of eerily similar incidents. In 1997, a drunk engineer named Hans-Jürgen Rose was picked up by Dessau police after a minor car accident. Hours later, he was found severely injured just 200 meters from the station and later died in the hospital. The coroner determined he had been restrained and struck repeatedly with blunt objects. Five years later, in 2002, a heavily intoxicated man named Mario Bichtermann was taken to the same station and placed in the same holding cell number 5 as Uriallo. Hours later, he was found dead with a fractured skull. Forensic experts concluded the injury was caused by a deliberate blow shortly before his death. Neither case was ever solved. What is going on here? During the second trial, one Dessau PD officer testified that his colleagues regularly arrested and detained drunk individuals to teach them a lesson. The informant later claimed it used to be a tradition at the station to tie unruly people to the canteen pillars and beat them. They called it a disciplinary measure, carried over from the GDR era. The activists from In Memory of Uriyallo believe there was a clique or group of officers within Dessau PD that had a habit of losing their temper and beating people to death. Did Uriyallo die because of this supposed sadistic culture? And could the fact that he was black have played a role in all of this? You'll get to pinch a black African. Holy sh... Black African. The term keeps coming up over and over again. It's striking how, in witness statements, the officers almost exclusively refer to Yellow as the Black African. They knew his name, and yet they chose not to use it. Despite glaring inconsistencies, missing evidence and expert analyses debunking the official narrative, authorities have stuck to the claim that Yalow set himself on fire. The Dessau Public Prosecutor Volker Bittmann initially seemed like a rare beacon of hope in the case. After hearing expert findings in 2013 suggesting the fire in cell number 5 couldn't have been started without large amounts of accelerant, he appeared determined to uncover the truth. Bittman commissioned new fire experiments, which also spectacularly failed to replicate the fire in the cell. A panel of experts later concluded that the theory of self-immolation was scientifically untenable. Someone else must have started the fire. But just as this revelation emerged, Bittman was removed from the case. The investigation was handed over to another prosecutor's office, which quickly shut it down. citing insufficient evidence of third-party involvement. Key findings, like the unexplained liether and forensic inconsistencies, were dismissed or ignored. Any momentum toward accountability was lost. The deeper problem, though, lies in systemic issues. Police were tasked with investigating police, leading to predictable issues. Experts point to a culture of core-geist. A fraternity among officers that leads to stonewalling and mutual protection. Studies show that possible misconduct by police is rarely prosecuted. Only 2% of allegations against officers result in charges, and convictions are even rarer. And there's a clear racial dimension. The UN has highlighted systemic racism within German law enforcement, stating that institutional biases have repeatedly hindered justice for victims of African descent. In Uri Yalow's case, no one has been properly held accountable to this day. The initiative in memory of Uri Yalow and his family continued their fight. In February 2023, Germany's Federal Constitutional Court officially closed the case. But Uri Yalow's family refuses to give up. In July 2023, they filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights. The fight for justice presses on. Two German reporters decide to visit Udo S. at his home. The whole world is in lockdown because of the pandemic, so they speak in his front yard. They ask him about an inconsistency in the case, one of so many. He repeatedly says, I'm at peace with myself. And I didn't do anything, I swear.

But he was restrained. His wrists and ankles were shackled. The mattress was fireproof.

And he had no lighter on him to ignite a blaze. So how did he burn to death? Nearly 20 years have gone by, and we still don't know what really happened that day.

Activists, lawyers, and nonprofits are still trying to uncover the truth. In this video, we're diving into the conflicting stories, the unanswered questions, and the evidence that's kept this case alive. Pay close attention.

Every detail matters. Dessau is a city in Eastern Germany. It's early morning. Let's start with the version of events as told by the local police. Shortly after 8 a.m., the phone rings at Dessau police station.

Beate H., the officer in charge of patrols today, picks up. A woman from the city cleaning crew claims that she and her colleagues are being harassed. She asks for police assistance. Beate H. calls patrol officers Hans-Ulrich M.

and Udo S. She tells them that four women from the city cleaning crew are being harassed by a foreigner, quite aggressively even. She also says the man has tried to grope them. Patrol officers Hans-Ulrich M.

and Udo S. arrive at the scene. A man called Uri Jallo is standing about 10 to 20 meters away from the women, leaning against a wall.

He seems to have been partying and is visibly drunk. The officers request to see his ID, but Jallo refuses. They handcuff him and put him into their patrol car to confirm his ID back at the station.

Yellow is still handcuffed when the two officers bring him to the medical room in the station's basement. They search him and check his pockets. Yellow resists, banging his head against a wall and table in the act.

In his pockets, they find a temporary residence permit. It's crumpled and the birth year is illegible. The officers decide to detain him until they can confirm his identity. Dr. B, the on-call doctor, arrives to take a blood sample. Yalo resists again.

The officers pin him down on the stretcher while the ME draws his blood. His BAC is at 2.98%. That's extremely high.

Enough to make him lose his conscience or even induce a coma. The two men are joined by a third officer and together they take Yalo to holding cell number 5. They handcuff him to the bed frame by his hands and feet, because they're worried he might harm himself. They step out of the cell and lock the door, leaving Yalow alone.

Udo S. and Hans-Ulrich M. finish up some paperwork before heading back out on patrol.

Shift supervisor Andreas S. and his deputy Beate H. are informed by a colleague that someone has been restrained in cell number 5. Beate H. turns on the intercom to monitor the inmate's activity. There's no video surveillance.

Uri Yalow repeatedly asks to be uncuffed. She tells them to calm down. Beate H hears a rattling noise through the intercom.

She assumes it's just routine movement during a cell check and doesn't think much of it. Shortly after, Beate H and her colleague SCH perform a cell check. Yellow seems to have calmed down.

They lock the door to her cell and head back upstairs. Over the intercom, Beate H hears Oriyalo call out again, demanding to be uncuffed. Andreas S.

is about to make a phone call, so he turns the intercom volume down. Beate H hears a strange noise, like something rustling and splashing, followed by a piercing beep. The fire alarm.

Andreas S. assumes it's a false alarm, and turns it off. Yalo starts yelling for help. The fire alarm goes off again. Through the intercom they can hear the crackling sound of flames.

Beate H tells her superior, Go check already. Move. According to the report, the last words Beate H hears from Uri Yalo are, Untie me. Fire.

Andreas S. heads down to the basement and opens the door to cell number 5. The fire is intense and the room is filled with thick black smoke. Beate H.

calls the fire department, saying they could use a fire truck. By the time the firefighters arrive, Yellow is already long dead. The mattress has burned to ash.

His body is charred down to deep skin layers. After the fire, the criminal PD in Stendal, a city close by, picks up the investigation. Despite standard protocol, they do not consult a fire expert. The crime scene crew sweeps up the debris from the fire. They will later find a lighter in the ashes.

Witnesses are interviewed, evidence is collected. The state criminal police sends a videographer to document the forensic process. At this point, the police are already convinced that Jalo has set the fire himself. They believe he was trying to get their attention, so they would uncuff him. Then the fire must have gotten out of control.

That same day, Uri Yalo's body is transferred to the forensic medicine in Halle. The coroner there finds no sign of violence inflicted prior to the fire. Yalo's skull appears to be intact.

This is the official version of the events. It's the version recounted in exhaustive detail at a local court in 2007. The trial is supposed to shed light on what happened that Friday morning. Almost all witnesses are government officials, most of them police. The trial lasts 59 days, stretched over a year and a half. Standing trial are Andreas S.

and Hans-Ulrich M. S. faces charges for ignoring the fire alarm. M. allegedly failed to find the lighter when he patted down Uriallo. They are both acquitted.

This video really matters to us. We've poured months of research, care and effort into telling this story. Tackling such important topics wouldn't be possible without the support of great sponsors. Brilliant is a hands-on learning platform that combines engaging video tutorials with interactive learning-by-doing lessons.

It offers thousands of courses in math, data analysis, programming and AI. Their first principles approach breaks down complex ideas into simple, digestible steps. That way, they help you truly understand concepts from the ground up.

Kind of similar to what we're trying to achieve with our own videos. If you like those, you'll love Brilliant. The goal is to not just absorb information, but to gain real skills. Dive into programming projects that mimic real-world challenges, explore the inner workings of AI systems like ChatGPT, or analyze data to uncover hidden patterns.

Scan this QR code or visit brilliant.org slash fern to explore everything Brilliant has to offer, free, for 30 days. Plus, enjoy 20% off an annual premium subscription when you sign up. The trial raises countless questions. Witnesses either clam up or contradict themselves.

Memories are foggy, and crucial pieces of evidence have vanished in mysterious fashion. From the very start, it feels like everyone involved is closing ranks and covering for each Even the judge is appalled. What we have seen here was not a fair trial. Police officers who should be upholding justice have prevented any chance of finding the truth. None of those officers who lie to us here should be entitled to wear a badge in this country.

About four years later, there is an extensive retrial at a regional court. This time, duty chief Andreas S. is convicted of involuntary manslaughter and fined about $15,000.

The verdict sends shockwaves through Germany. Activists, journalists and legal experts pick up on the case. The Initiative in Memory of Uri Yalow, established back in 2005, gains wide support. Today there are thousands of pages of investigation files, court documents, expert reports, reports, parliamentary inquiries, fire experiments, forensic exams and filtered court letters.

Medical examiners, fire experts, chemists, radiologists, toxicologists and criminologists have all pored over the case. Their findings fundamentally contradict the official version of events as stated by the police. Almost every detail in the official story is riddled with inconsistencies, misconduct and unsolved questions.

So, let's take another look at what happened that morning on January 7, 2005. According to the women on the city cleaning crew, Uri Yalo followed them and asked if he could use one of their phones. At one point, he tugged on one of the women's backpacks. Over the phone with Beate H., they described feeling quote, harassed.

But when Beate H. relays this to the patrol officers on the phone, she exaggerates. She says the cleaners have been massively harassed and claims Yalow was trying to grope the women. Gabriele Heinecke has represented Yalow's family as a lawyer and followed the case for over 10 years.

The officers arrive at the scene. They find Jalo standing several meters away from the women, leaning against a wall, completely drunk. The situation has already diffused.

Still, Hans-Ulrich M. and Udo S. approach Jalo and say, Passport, amigo. He refuses.

Both officers are tall, while Uri is slim and only 5'7", about 170 centimeters. He doesn't stand a chance. He is forced to the ground and pushed into the patrol car. Legal experts will later conclude that this has been an unlawful detention. The officers should have provided a reason for demanding to see his ID. They are also not allowed to use force on anyone without prior warning. According to the police, Uri Yalo banked his head against the wall and table. There will in fact be a blood stain found and attributed to Yalo, but the blood is never tested to see if it matches his DNA. And Oddly enough, it is found on the leg of the table. The police also claim they had to hold him in custody to confirm his ID. But the truth is that at this point, Yalo's complete details were already recorded in the custody log, including his supposedly eligible year of birth. Around this time, shift supervisor Andreas S. reaches out to the on-call Dr. B. The exchange is documented in the court record. We need you to come in. What's up? Just a blood test. Alright, I'll handle it. You'll get to pinch a black African. Holy shit, I can never find a vein with these dark-skinned folks. Well, bring a special needle then. Will do. Dr. B proceeds to draw blood from Yellow. Udo S. and Hans-Ulrich M. insist that Yellow was extremely aggressive. They claim he put up such a fight they had to restrain him so Dr. B could go through with it. Three other officers, who were partly present during the scene, will later contradict this account. According to them, there were no disturbances. During the first trial, even Dr. B himself confirmed things went smoothly when he drew the blood. During the retrial, however, he refused to testify. Physically restraining someone and holding them down to draw blood without their consent is a serious violation of basic rights. And doing so without a formal warrant is straight up illegal. Uri Yalo should have been released by now. Instead, three police officers escort him from the medical room to cell number 5. They proceed to chain his hands and feet to the bed. Beate H hears some clattering sounds over the intercom. She assumes it's a routine cell check. However, no cell inspection is recorded in the custody log for 11.30 am. At the same time, officer Thorsten B. heads down to the custody area, looking for colleagues to join him for lunch. Through the open door of cell number 5, he sees Udo S. standing at the head of Uriallo's bed, and Hans-Ulrich M. patting down his thighs. He asks them if they want to grab lunch with him. They respond by saying they're still busy. Udo S. and Hans-Ulrich M. will later deny this encounter. They claim to have been out on patrol at that time. All patrol activities are usually logged in a duty logbook. But the log for that day mysteriously disappeared. Beate H. and her colleague S.C.H. from the traffic unit conduct a cell check. Jello wants to know why he is shackled. To which Beate H. replies something along the lines of, you know why. She later recalls noticing that his pants were unbuttoned and pulled down a little, although his hands were chained in a way that would have made it impossible for him to undo his pants himself. She also spots a puddle of liquid right next to his mattress. It's not urine. Despite these strange details, she wraps up the inspection and leaves the cell. According to the police version of events, This is when Uri Yalo must have started tearing apart the mattress and setting it on fire. But was that actually possible? Could someone really start such a devastating fire with just a simple lighter and some mattress foam? This experiment was commissioned by the Initiative in Memory of Uri Yalo and conducted by Irish fire expert Maxim Smyrnu. He recreated the exact conditions in cell number 5. After more than one hour of combustion time, this is how the cell looks like. And this is what cell number 5 in Dessau looked like after the fire. Experiments like these often use pig carcasses. The way they burn closely resembles the fire behavior on human bodies. In the test, the dummy body sustained only minor burns to one of the legs. But Yellow's body was charred down to deep tissue layers. will spare you the images. Also, the experiment produced white smoke, while in cell number 5 there was thick black smoke with heavy soot deposits. So how could the fire have gotten so intense? In another test, the experts doused a pig carcass with 5 liters of petrol before setting it on fire. Go away, go away! The resulting burn patterns were the most similar to those in cell number 5. The experts concluded that it was most likely that petrol has been used to accelerate the fire. Beate H. claims Uri Yalos last words were untimely fire. But that is highly doubtful. The autopsy showed no carbon monoxide in Yalos body. If he had burned alive, he would have inhaled the poisonous gas. Neither did the examiners find any noradrenaline, a hormone automatically released by the body under physical stress. Both findings suggest that Yellow was unconscious when the fire started. But why would Uriyallo have been unconscious before the fire? After all, the initial autopsy reported no injuries. In 2019, researchers at Frankfurt Universal Hospital used advanced technology to reassess the CT scan images from 2005. This time, the images revealed that Yalow sustained multiple severe injuries before his death. A broken nasal bone, a fractured skull, a ruptured nasal septum, and a broken rib. All these findings strongly suggest that Yalow was physically abused before his death. According to Officer Andreas S., This is the first time he opened cell number 5 since the fire broke out. But a team at British research group Forensic Architecture thoroughly reconstructed the smoke patterns in the cell. Their analysis suggests that the cell door must have been opened during the fire. This directly contradicts the account of Andreas S. The police claim that Uriallo used a lighter to set himself on fire. But when forensic investigators examine cell number 5 after the fire, they do not find any lighter in the debris. It only turns up three days later, when a bag of debris from the scene is re-examined. To this day, no one can explain how it got there. Also, the lighter was melted. Fire experts point out it would have exploded if it had been in the fire. Upon further inspection, investigators found clumps of red fiber fused into the lighter's plastic. If the lighter had been at the scene, these fibers should have matched something, anything from the cell. They didn't. So, was that lighter ever in cell number 5 or not? That should have been easy to determine. The two-hour crime scene investigation was supposed to be fully documented on tape by videographer Jens W. from the state criminal police. But his recording simply cuts off. after just four minutes. Jens W. will later claim there was a power outage. His statement can not be corroborated by other witnesses. Besides, the camera had a working battery. That very same day, shortly after the recording, Jens W. goes on sick leave for two months, supposedly due to an allergy. In the days following the fire, key pieces of evidence disappear under mysterious circumstances. Files containing entries related to Yellow are deleted from police computers, including their backups. A log of the 70 people present at the station that morning, gone. Photos taken by officers on the day of the incident, missing. Surveillance footage from the station hallway, simply vanished. An unlawful arrest and blood draw. A blood stain that was never tested. An unnecessary detention to confirm an ID. already confirmed and documented. Violence used to restrain aggressive behavior that no one else has witnessed. Officers who claim to have been elsewhere but have been seen on sight. An unidentified liquid on the floor. Pants pulled down for no apparent reason. A lighter that cannot be linked to the crime scene. Fire behavior that can only be replicated with several liters of accelerant. Multiple bone fractures suggesting severe physical abuse. A cell door is said to be locked that must have been opened during the fire. A CSI documentation video mysteriously cutting off when things get serious. A baffling series of errors and countless items of conveniently missing evidence. Nearly every expert who has examined the case agrees. Uriyalo cannot possibly have set himself on fire. Which would mean that someone else must have done it. When you put together all the pieces of information, a chilling and deeply unsettling picture begins to take shape. Here's what might have really happened on the morning of January 7, 2005. Uri Yalow, heavily intoxicated, was taken to the police station under a false pretense. While in custody, he was brutally assaulted and suffered multiple fractures, possibly leaving him unconscious. Then, somebody poured accelerant over him and set him on fire. But who? And why? Shift supervisor Andreas S. turned down the fire alarm. Twice, according to Beate H.'s initial testimony. Once in his own account. Either way, 11 minutes passed from the first fire alarm to the moment he finally checked on yellow, according to the public prosecutor's office. But it wasn't him. He was in the second floor control room when the fire happened, but he probably knows more than he's letting on. Then, there's Beate H. Her testimony changed several times. She implicated her superior Andreas S. in the first trial, only to later recant after meeting with him and his lawyers. She insists she heard Jalloh's cries for help through the intercom while the fire raged, although he was most probably already unconscious by then. She too, might know more than she's learning on. Hans-Ulrich M. was the one who arrested Uriyello, searched him, handcuffed him to the bed in cell number 5. One of his colleagues claims to have seen him in the cell shortly before Yalos'death, but M. insists he was out on patrol. He was acquitted during the first trial, despite having no verifiable alibi to back his story. Udo S. was the first officer to approach Uriyello on the street and demand his ID. He was restraining Jalloh in a headlock during the patrol car ride. Witnesses claim to have seen him in the cell with Hans Ulrich M. just before Jalloh's death. And just like his colleague, he has no verifiable alibi for the time of the incident. According to German press, eight years later, a source informed the Dessau PD that Udo S. had previously worked as a firefighter specializing in pyrotechnics. Supposedly, he could have known exactly how to quickly start a fire intense enough to leave no traces. No one ever followed up on that lead. Instead, the article reports there was a defamation lawsuit filed against the source. Andreas S. was fined, and Hans-Ulrich M. acquitted. But oddly enough, no murder investigation was ever launched against Udo S. But there was someone else. Apparently there was an unidentified male present at the station during the fire. One officer recalls walking past someone at the stairwell. A shadow. The man appears to have been watching the fire brigade arrive from the control room window. Court documents only refer to him as another man with glasses. In 2013, an informant reached out to one of the journalists following the case. He said he knows who is responsible for Yellow's death. He claimed the perpetrator entered the station's custody area through a back door. A door secured with a code that only police officers could know. According to the informant, the whole thing was about racism and sexual humiliation. Someone wanted to teach Uri Yalo a lesson and went too far. Could this have been a possible motivation? To teach a heavily intoxicated and utterly defenseless man a lesson? In fact, the Dessau PD appears to have a troubling history of eerily similar incidents. In 1997, a drunk engineer named Hans-Jürgen Rose was picked up by Dessau police after a minor car accident. Hours later, he was found severely injured just 200 meters from the station and later died in the hospital. The coroner determined he had been restrained and struck repeatedly with blunt objects. Five years later, in 2002, a heavily intoxicated man named Mario Bichtermann was taken to the same station and placed in the same holding cell number 5 as Uriallo. Hours later, he was found dead with a fractured skull. Forensic experts concluded the injury was caused by a deliberate blow shortly before his death. Neither case was ever solved. What is going on here? During the second trial, one Dessau PD officer testified that his colleagues regularly arrested and detained drunk individuals to teach them a lesson. The informant later claimed it used to be a tradition at the station to tie unruly people to the canteen pillars and beat them. They called it a disciplinary measure, carried over from the GDR era. The activists from In Memory of Uriyallo believe there was a clique or group of officers within Dessau PD that had a habit of losing their temper and beating people to death. Did Uriyallo die because of this supposed sadistic culture? And could the fact that he was black have played a role in all of this? You'll get to pinch a black African. Holy sh... Black African. The term keeps coming up over and over again. It's striking how, in witness statements, the officers almost exclusively refer to Yellow as the Black African. They knew his name, and yet they chose not to use it. Despite glaring inconsistencies, missing evidence and expert analyses debunking the official narrative, authorities have stuck to the claim that Yalow set himself on fire. The Dessau Public Prosecutor Volker Bittmann initially seemed like a rare beacon of hope in the case. After hearing expert findings in 2013 suggesting the fire in cell number 5 couldn't have been started without large amounts of accelerant, he appeared determined to uncover the truth. Bittman commissioned new fire experiments, which also spectacularly failed to replicate the fire in the cell. A panel of experts later concluded that the theory of self-immolation was scientifically untenable. Someone else must have started the fire. But just as this revelation emerged, Bittman was removed from the case. The investigation was handed over to another prosecutor's office, which quickly shut it down. citing insufficient evidence of third-party involvement. Key findings, like the unexplained liether and forensic inconsistencies, were dismissed or ignored. Any momentum toward accountability was lost. The deeper problem, though, lies in systemic issues. Police were tasked with investigating police, leading to predictable issues. Experts point to a culture of core-geist. A fraternity among officers that leads to stonewalling and mutual protection. Studies show that possible misconduct by police is rarely prosecuted. Only 2% of allegations against officers result in charges, and convictions are even rarer. And there's a clear racial dimension. The UN has highlighted systemic racism within German law enforcement, stating that institutional biases have repeatedly hindered justice for victims of African descent. In Uri Yalow's case, no one has been properly held accountable to this day. The initiative in memory of Uri Yalow and his family continued their fight. In February 2023, Germany's Federal Constitutional Court officially closed the case. But Uri Yalow's family refuses to give up. In July 2023, they filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights. The fight for justice presses on. Two German reporters decide to visit Udo S. at his home. The whole world is in lockdown because of the pandemic, so they speak in his front yard. They ask him about an inconsistency in the case, one of so many. He repeatedly says, I'm at peace with myself. And I didn't do anything, I swear.

Transcript for:The Mysterious Death of Uri Yalow

Transcript for:
The Mysterious Death of Uri Yalow