DEATH of ENgin Çeber

After a hearing at the Bakırköy 14th High Criminal Court on 22 July, it has emerged that recordings of witness statements that confirm that Engin Çeber was tortured are faulty.

It has been announced that while the visual part of the recordings is available, the audio recording malfunctioned "for an unknown reason".

Thus, witnesses will be called again in the case against police officers accused of having killed rights activist Engin Çeber through torture in detention.

Lawyers suspect deliberate malfunctioning

Lawyers have protested against the situation, fearing that witnesses may change their statements or may have threatened to do so. Lawyer Taylan Tanay told the Radikal newspaper:

"They speak of an unknown reason. Is that possible? We suspect deliberate erasure of recordings because the hearing clearly brought to light the responsibility of the prison manager."

At the last hearing Murat Gevrek, Ahmet Aksu, Adem Halil, Rasim İltaş and Gıyasettin Şakiroğlu, who had all shared a cell with Çeber, had made statements. Gevrek had said, "Without giving him the opportunity to speak, they hit him on the head. Within two minutes, they had turned him into pulp." Şakiroğlu had reported that Çeber had been beaten after not standing up to be counted, and that Fuat Karaosmanoğlu, deputy manager of the prison, had said, "Those that act like this are punished like this."

Court proceedings are created from the transcripts of recordings. However, the judges have said that the company setting up the recording system, as well as technical experts, have not been able to ascertain why there was no audio recording.

At the last hearing it had also been announced that a camera at the police station where Çeber was maltreated did not work.

Arrested for criticising police violence

Çeber and three friends had been taken into police custody on 28 September 2008, after taking part in a protest against police violence that caused the paralysis of Ferhat Gerçek. After reading a press statement, they were taken into custody and then arrested on court order. His friends, who survived, have described in detail the torture that took place at the Şehit Muhsin Bodur police station and the Metris prison.

Çeber died in the intensive care unit of the Şişli Etfal Hospital in Istanbul on 10 October.

The forensic medical report said that he had died as a result of torture. Then Minister of Justice Mehmet Ali Şahin had accepted the diagnosis and apologised in public. (EÜ/AG)