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Human Rights Watch Documents Turkish Police Abusing Detainees

02.09.2015 19:00

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on Wednesday recording the abuse of detainees in southeastern Turkey at the hands of police officers who beat and threatened them with torture and death. The report referenced three documented cases in which male detainees were severely beaten, kicked, and forced.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on Wednesday recording the abuse of detainees in southeastern Turkey at the hands of police officers who beat and threatened them with torture and death.

The report referenced three documented cases in which male detainees were severely beaten, kicked, and forced to remain in kneeling positions for hours. It also recorded a case in which the police detained a boy suffering from critical gunshot wounds and denied him medical care.

Deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia division of the HRW Benjamin Ward was quoted in the report as saying: “It's deeply worrying that police in Turkey's Southeast seem to be returning to abusive tactics in response to security threats. The authorities should urgently investigate and prosecute those responsible, and ensure that people in custody are protected from ill-treatment and have prompt access to proper medical treatment.”

The statement explained that torture and extrajudicial killings were a serious problem in the predominantly Kurdish Southeast during the height of the conflict between the state and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist organization in the 1990s. Despite legal reforms, HRW has repeatedly documented police violence and a lack of accountability for officers committing abuses. Now, with a resumption of combat between security forces and the PKK, and with the onset of activity of the radical terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the government is conducting wide-scale counterterrorism raids, blocking websites, and banning and dispersing protests.

Detailing one instance of abuse, the report explained: “Three men were taken into police custody on suspicion of being PKK members in front of a hospital to which they had driven relatives and neighbors in need of treatment for injuries sustained during armed clashes. Six other men were also arrested at the hospital that day. The three interviewed said they had been beaten while being taken into custody, and again on arrival at the police station, with rifle butts, fire extinguishers, chains, batons and brass knuckles, and threatened with further abuse and death.”

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)



 
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