Report: 26 Cases of Sexual Harassment Occurred in Police Custody in 2019

Photo: muhalefet.org

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The Law Bureau for Help Against Sexual Harassment and Rape in Detention has released the "The Year 2019 Statistical Report," on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25.

The signatories of the report, Human Rights Association (İHD) Co-Chair Eren Keskin and human rights defender Leman Yurtsever, stated that "the increase in the violence against women and feminicides are not independent of the political violence."

They pointed out that the İstanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, which was signed by Turkey in 2011, is not applied as required.

Accordingly, five women were sexually assaulted and 26 women were sexually harassed in detention between January 1 and November 25.

Who were sexually harassed/assaulted?

Thirty-one women, 11 of which are currently behind bars, applied to the bureau. Two of them are under 18 years old. 24 women were Kurds, five were Turks and two were Azerbaijanis.

Twenty-six women were harassed and five women were sexually assaulted.

Who were the perpetrators?

Twenty four of the perpetrators were police officers, two were soldiers/gendarmerie officers, three were prison guards, three were other public officers, and two were Free Syrian Army (FSA) members.

Why the women were detained?

Out of 31 women, 24 were detained due to "political reasons" or "reasons related to the war," the report said. Among the seven people who were detained due to "judicial reasons", six were harassed and one was raped.

There are a total of 11 lawsuits, 10 of them being at the prosecutor's office and one at the penal court.

Twenty cases were closed and 11 women did not want to take legal action "because they feared," the report stated. Two women who were subjected to sexual harassment/assault are pursuing the cases themselves while nine cases are being pursued by attorneys. (TP/RT/VK)