Police Officers and Doctor on Trial for Torture

The Bakırköy 7^th Heavy Criminal Court in Istanbul accepted prosecution under charges of torture against 6 police officers who had beat university student Güney Tuna in a public park and on a square in the Istanbul district of Avcılar on 3 October this year.

According to information given to bianet by Tuna's lawyer Efkan Bolaç, the prosecutor furthermore tries 2 police officers under charges of "misconduct in office". Police officers Samet Durmaz and Muhammet Bağcı allegedly neglected formalities when they took Tuna into custody. They released the student before having him registered and thus attempted to conceal the torture.

The prosecutor demands prison sentence aggravated by half because Tuna carried away perilous injuries from the assaults. This means the police officers are facing prison sentence of between 4.5 and 18 years.

The prosecutor charges a doctor with "forgery of documents" since the staff member of the Avcılar State Hospital had issued a report concerning Tuna's injuries stating that no evidence of torture could be determined.

The court accepted the indictment on last Friday (4 December), there is no date set yet for the first hearing of the case.

Due to accounts of Tuna's friends, the police heavily assaulted Tuna in a park in Avcılar, then on the street and afterwards in the police vehicle and in the police station on the evening of 3 October.

Bolaç: Police officers must be suspended immediately

Lawyer Bolaç voiced his expectation to have the 6 police officers deposed from duty immediately by the Istanbul Governorship and the Police Department since camera records of MOBESE (cameras in public) show the police's attack against Tuna on the square in front of the park.

In a similar incident that occurred in Mersin (eastern Mediterranean coast) last week, police officers involved in an assault of 2 people and being recorded by the camera in the police station were suspended from duty.

Case on torture outside official premises

Bolaç underlined the importance of this trial. Is constitutes a first because it is the first case opened under charges of torture imposed by police violence outside official  detention centres after the amendment of the Police Duty and Authority Law (PVSK) which increased police authority in 2007.

A report from the Human Rights Foundation Turkey (TİHV) covering the time after the amendment from July 2007 to July 2009 indicates that of 416 torture incidents that entered the records 168 cases occurred on the streets outside official premises.

Clear definition of torture

According to the United Nations Convention for the Prevention of Torture - approved by Turkey - it is not relevant where the torture occurred, if it was psychological or physical or how severely the victim was injured. Torture is defined as follows:

"Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions". (TK/VK)