Amnesty International Urges Turkey To Take Action Against Prison Brutality

Amnesty International, in a report released on Aug. 25, urged Turkey to take action against the reported ill treatment of four suspects who are in custody for the murder of two police officers on July 21 in Şanlıurfa's Ceylanpınar district.

Amnesty said the brother of Sedat Aydın, one of the suspects, reported that Sedat and the other three suspects -- Mehmet Naci Yılmaz, Ömer Kılınç and Murat Abir -- are being repeatedly beaten while in police custody, most recently on Aug. 19, and denied access to medical treatment for their injuries. It was also reported that the chair of the Adana branch of the NGO Human Rights Association (İHD) who visited them in prison said they were severely beaten by gendarmes and prison guards.

The report also said Amnesty International has received information that the suspects were taken to a hospital after the ill treatment but not examined by a doctor. According to representatives of the suspects, the doctor instead signed a pre-drafted document stating that they were healthy and had no injuries.

The report stated that the men are still being held in pre-trial detention in Adana, southern Turkey, and continue to be at risk of further ill treatment. It urges the Turkish authorities to prevent further ill treatment of the suspects, provide them with the necessary treatment and investigate the beating claims.

The two police officers were found dead with bullet wounds to the head in the house they shared on July 21 in the Ceylanpınar district. The terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) later claimed responsibility for the killing of the two officers, saying it was in retaliation for the suicide bombing in Suruç, which killed 34 people on July 20 and has been blamed on the radical terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The PKK said in a written statement on one of its websites that the police officers were killed at around 6 a.m. on Wednesday in retaliation for the Turkish police's "collaboration with the Daesh [the Arabic term for ISIL] gang." (Cihan/Today's Zaman)