Turkey’s cops use baton to rape teacher who died in custody, widow says

Turkish police used a baton to rape a teacher who died while in police custody his widow has claimed.

Medyabold reported on Saturday that Gokhan Acikkollu’s wife made the allegation, citing medical reports.

The 42-year-old history teacher was expelled from his job on terror accusations following the failed July 2016 coup, Gokhan Acikkollu suffered a heart-attack 13 days into his detention on August 5 in 2016 resulting in his death.

He was facing terrorism-related charges.

Acikkollu family sued the Interior Ministry for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages in 2017, and that court case stopped moving forward in 2018 due to the stalemate in the court case over his death.

According to the report of Sevinc Ozarslan from Medyabold, Mumine Acikkollu said that a particular line from the lawyer’s petition drew her attention.

“I checked all the medical reports on my husband. Maybe those were the things he could disclose to the doctors.  I don’t know if there is more he couldn’t say, but a line written by the lawyer in the file got my attention. It mentions torture with a baton,”  Mumine was quoted as saying.

Several witnesses claimed that Acikkollu endured severe torture during his detention, but the investigation into his death seems to have stalled with a confidentiality order being in effect.

According to witnesses, Acikkollu endured continuous torture during the 13 days that he was detained and was not able to get his insulin even though he was a diabetic.

The teacher suffered two diabetic comas during the 13 days of detention.

A security camera footage showing Acikkollu’s last moments as he called for help surfaced on Friday.

Displaying a small cell packed with five people, the footage shows Acikkollu forcing himself to sleep after getting no answer to his help calls and having seizures before passing away.

The Turkish government reassigned the deceased history teacher to his post in 2018 — long after he had died.

Torture, abuse, and ill-treatment of detainees and prisoners in Turkey have become the norm rather than the exception, according to a report dubbed Mass Torture and Ill-Treatment in Turkey published in June 2017 by the Sweden-based Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF),

According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW), in Turkey, people are at risk of torture in police custody, especially if they are accused of terrorism or of being linked to the 2016 attempted coup.

‘I wanted to die during torture’ – teacher speaks on 2016 coup arrest

The post Turkey’s cops use baton to rape teacher who died in custody, widow says appeared first on IPA NEWS.

from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/08/03/turkeys-cops-use-baton-to-rape-teacher-who-died-in-custody-widow-says/