A CELTIC fan said he was left in pain and covered with bruises after police descended on him for displaying a Palestine flag at a football game in Germany.
A viral clip shows Leigh Kelly, 43, being huckled by officers during the Celtic v Borussia Dortmund game.
The Motherwell-based environmental consultant told The National the police “slammed” his head against the floor in what he said was an unprovoked attack.
In the clip, an officer can be heard explaining that the flag is banned because it bears the slogan “from the river to the sea”, which is banned in Germany. Kelly had be heard saying he was unaware that was the case.
Kelly said police confiscated the flag just three minutes after kick-off on Tuesday evening at Signal Iduna Park.
They then “manhandled” him out of the stands and down to the bottom of the stairwell, where he was thrown to the ground.
German police brutally assaulted a Celtic fan for carrying a Palestinian flag during last night’s game against Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park. pic.twitter.com/5JFAUFZOzC
— Leyla Hamed (@leylahamed) October 2, 2024
He said: “It was all over in seconds. At one point they had slammed my head against the ground. My whole body’s covered in bruises.”
Kelly told how the police “banged” his head on the floor and kept him pinned down by “getting their knees into my ribs”.
He said: “If it had been an argument or an altercation you’d have thought, ‘I deserve this’, but there was none of it.”
And he added: “It wasn’t as if I was being aggressive.”
Kelly said that he was kept in a “holding cell” in the North Rhine-Westphalia stadium for the duration of the game which saw Dortmund beat Celtic 7-1.
He said he was let go after paying a €450 fine.
A video of the incident recorded by Kelly’s friend has gone viral on social media, racking up more than one million views on Twitter/X.
The North Rhine-Westphalia state police force was approached for comment.
