Semira Adamu

Semira Precious Adamu was a 20-year-old Nigerian asylum seeker who was suffocated to death by two Belgian police officers on a aeroplane in Brussels, Belgium, during her forced deportation on September 22, 1998. The police officers recorded video footage of themselves exchanging jokes as they pushed her head deep into a pillow for 20 minutes with her hands and ankles handcuffed; during which Adamu had stopped breathing for 7 to 8 minutes. She died in the St Luc Hospital later the same day at 9:32pm. When the court asked why so much force was used, one of the officers said that it was necessary "to avoid disturbing other passengers".