PRESS RELEASE: IHD DIYARBAKIR BRANCH
Dear Press Members;
Torture is going on in an unquestioned way before the eyes of everyone. While the human rights advocaters claim that the torture is still going on in this country, the politicians and the government stress that these are baseless allegations; however yesterday a man was subjected to torture by a uniformed policeman in a street in Diyarbakır. Suat YALÇIN, who applied to our association branch on 25 August 2008, declared as follows below:
On 24 August 2008 around 23.15; two men, one of them was sergeant, came to the coffee house that I run with a Renault Megan car and asked me about Digiturk and D-Smart cards. They told me that they had come for asking the cards’ passwords. And I asked them if they had incumbency certificate or not; because the controller of these cards must be authorized people. But, upon my answer, he threatened me by saying “How can you dare it! You will see now!” Then he called for an official police crew. Firstly the motorized unit (which is named as the Dolphins by the people) arrived. Then another crew came. They brought me to the pavement against coffee house. They began to beat me in public… They beaten me with billies, sticks etc. Meanwhile, upon the people’s reaction, the motorized unit debated with other police and they tried to save m e. By the way, they began to beat my brother who was trying to save me from the police. The motorized unit saved my brother from the other police and preserved him in order not to be beaten any more.
Around 23.00 p.m, they brought me and my brother Mete YALÇIN, who saw that they were beating me, to the Bağlar Police Station and swore us on the way to the station. In the police car, when they brought us to the station they swore and insulted us. When I entered the station, they descended on me and they began to beat me again. Because of the ill-treatment against me and my brother in the police station, my brother fainted. Although I asked for a lawyer all the night, they didn’t let for it until 04.00 of the next day. During the five hours that I stayed there, almost all police swore and tortured me. I was subjected to ill-treatment. They brought me to the Public Hospital around 00.30-01.00 after all the torture and ill-treatment. The next day, t hey brought me to the Prosecution Office around 13.30. I told my complaints there. The Prosecutor sent me to the institution of forensic medicine at first. But I returned to the Prosecution Office because there was no doctor there. This time, the Prosecution sent me to the Medical Faculty of the Dicle University. Besides this in the police station one of the civil policemen came and said me “I’m working in counter terrorism department. Drop the charge, save yourself. If not, you know we are police and we can find you guilty in any way”. I said ‘No, you tortured me unjustly. I won’t drop the charge.”
Suat YALÇIN’s business partner Sedat KILIÇ declared these: I went to the police station on 25.08.2008 around 12.00. I was going to ask to my partner if he needed anything. Meanwhile, a child (one like 17 years old) who was there because of the accusation of burglary said to me “Brother, what did he do? They have beaten him very badly.”
Dear Press Members;
How can the police dare to torture by beating the victim, Suat YALÇIN, so heavily in a street in full view of people? They say there is no tolerance to torture in this country. So what is that? Now we ask; who are these people that come to coffee house with a Megan car and ask for D-smart card arbitrarily? Why are the motorized unit and other police beaten that man in an unquestioned way? Although the torture and ill-treatment are crimes in addition to our law and the police know that more than everybody, how can they do it so overt and never hesitate? Why was Suat YALÇIN threatened after being tortured in the police station? We want the answers of all these questions and demand from the prosecutors of the Turkish Republic, which is a State of Law, to investigate and find the responsible of this evident and try them. We wish that AKP, which is responsible for all these, will follow the process. Torture is a crime against humanity and the people who conceal this crime are as guilty as the ones who commit the crime. We want them to be tried.
Best Regards….
Muharrem ERBEY
The Chairman of Branch, Lawyer