Strip Searcher Officer Under Protection From Investigation

Tire District Governor Cezmi Türk Göçer did not permit the investigation of woman police officer Berna Ceyhan by the Chief Prosecutor for forcing women visitors to strip searches and then checking their private parts.

Tire District Governor Göçer said that 26 of the 48 women who visited the prison on the said day were questioned and 21 of them had no complaints. He also stated that the procedure was not in conflict with the laws and rules regarding the subject. The district governor refused to give permission for the investigation, since there was no sufficient evidence.

The victims of the July 4 strip search, Derya Desde and her father Mehmet Desde, have objected the decision. They will take the decision to the Regional Administrative Court.

Desde said that the district governor did not have the authority to decide if there was sufficient evidence, since this was a job for the courts. He added that the district governor was trying to protect Ceyhan.

“Fine search cannot be done in the prison entrances”

Desde reminded that the “fine search”, which means searching the nose, mouth, ears and sexual organs, can only be conducted with judge’s order upon probable cause.

Züheyla Kılıç, lawyer from the Contemporary Jurists Association (ÇHD), with whom bianet had met previously about a similar incident, had said, “Article 86 of the Penal Code states that individuals can be searched using an X-ray machine or by hands, but the same article also adds that the searches must not violate human dignity.”  (TK/EÜ/TB)