A local bar association in Eastern Turkey has claimed that at least 38 people were ill-treated and tortured following a recent counter-terrorism operation by Turkish police.
The Evrensel daily reported on Monday that the Sanliurfa Bar Association claimed the 38 people, including children, were detained after the counter-terrorism operation in Sanliurfa.
The ill-treatment and torture took place in the local police station, Evrensel daily reported.
Sanliurfa Bar Association’s Human Rights Center on Saturday announced on its Twitter account that they had received reports of torture targeting 12 people who were detained in Sanliurfa’s Halfeti district following the operation.
“This is a criminal complaint. Torture is forbidden by international and domestic laws,” the Center said, addressing Turkey’s Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Justice and Sanliurfa Governor’s Office.
Claiming that they have concrete indications of the torture, the Center on Monday posted a photo on Twitter, which showed more than 10 people lying face down on the ground with their hands handcuffed behind the back.
“We will continue our fight for the law until torture is eradicated in these lands, where it is carried out openly. This is the yard of the gendarmerie station in Yaylak, Bozova [Sanliurfa district].”
The Sanliurfa Bar Association’s human rights center also alleged on Twitter that the presumption of innocence was violated, even for the children, and unlawful restrictions were imposed on the suspects when they see their lawyers.
The detentions in Bozova and Halfeti districts in Sanliurfa took place after a police officer was killed in a counter-terrorism operation targeting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in Halfeti on Saturday.
In the wake of the operation, Turkish police officers from the Counter Terrorism Unit blamed some Sanliurfa residents for supporting the outlawed PKK, which is deemed by the Turkish government to be a terrorist organization.
PKK has waged an insurgency in the predominantly Kurdish southeastern part of Turkey for more than three decades.
The Mezopotamya News Agency (MA) reported on Tuesday that Turkish police obtained signed confessions out of 11 detainees by torture, including Mehmet Alakus, who said in his confession that he and some others had been helping PKK militants in the region.
Lawyers of Alakus stated after seeing him that there were indications of serious torture in his body and that the police officers threatened to harm his wife and other family members unless he confessed to the crime.
Dragged along the floor
Footage of the people in custody in Bozova and Halfeti, which was also reported by the pro-Kurdish MA on Tuesday, showed a number of detainees with faces covered in blood. While some of them are seen forced to walk by the police, those who are in no shape to walk are seen being dragged along the floor.
Sanliurfa Bar Association head Abdullah Oncel held a meeting with the chief public prosecutor of the city about torture claims, violations of detainees’ rights and restrictions imposed on them on Tuesday.
The Sanliurfa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office denied the allegations of torture and said his office would look into the issue.
A number of human rights associations, politicians and legal experts condemned the claims on social media and argued that ill-treatment and torture are legally prohibited.
Omer Ocalan, a Sanliurfa MP for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), has brought the allegations of torture on parliamentary agenda.
Ocalan submitted a parliamentary inquiry and asked Suleyman Soylu, Turkey’s Interior Minister, whether the claims of torture in Sanliurfa were true.
The Association of Lawyers for Freedom (OHD) underlined that the torture targeting detainees in Halfeti is “collective punishment against Kurds.”
The OHD asked the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) to react to the torture cases in Turkey and urged application of sanctions.
Vice-president of the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD), Eren Keskin shared the photograph of the torture with a note, saying “Once upon a time, there were some people saying ‘zero tolerance toward torture’, right?”
Keskin referred to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks that his country has “zero tolerance toward torture” following repeated allegations that people who were detained in the aftermath of the 2016 coup attempt were tortured.
Zulkuf Ucar, the president of the Van Bar Association, cited on Twitter the Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which said: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
“Those who abuse state facilities today should know that there’s no statute of limitation when it comes to torture,” he added.
Sezgin Tanrikulu, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and a human rights lawyer and activist, also posted on Tuesday the photo of people whose hands were handcuffed behind their backs.
He asked the ministers of justice and interior affairs whether they would investigate the ill-treatment and torture allegations and then inform the public about the issue.
Using the hashtag #HalfetideNelerOluyor (What’s happening in Halfeti?), HDP Siirt MP Meral Danis Bestas on Monday highlighted, “They [Turkish government] no longer need to hide the torture. No matter where such incidences happen, a Minister of the Interior could no longer remain in office, even for a minute.”
HDP Izmir deputy Serpil Kemalbay also tweeted, “Torture is a crime against humanity. Nobody should remain silent in the face of this torture, we all should raise our voices.”
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), an independent human rights organization which investigates and reports on abuses happening all around the world, people accused of terrorism or of being linked to the July 2016 attempted coup in Turkey are at risk of torture in police custody.
Turkey to review definition of torture, perpetrators must face trial, UN says
The post 38 detainees in Turkey ill-treated and tortured: bar association appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/05/22/38-detainees-in-turkey-ill-treated-and-tortured-bar-association/
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