AYTEN ÖZTÜRK WRITES FROM PRISON

‘They said to me, “You will rot in prison”’

“I lost 25 kilos in torture. 898 wounds-marks were found in my body. The wounds in my body have healed, but the wounds inside me won’t heal until this injustice is eliminated. Join your voice with mine,” says Ayten Öztürk from her letter from prison.

Ayça Söylemez

‘They said to me, “You will rot in prison”’

"I would like to share the injustice that I have faced with you.

It is such injustice that

it has lasted not 6 days

not 60 days

but 6 months, 2 seasons,

and it is still lasting."

Click to read the article in Turkish

Facing aggravated life imprisonment and arrested for three years, Ayten Öztürk has sent a letter to bianet ahead of her hearing to be held at the İstanbul 3rd Heavy Penal Court on June 10, 2021.

Arrested in Silivri No. 1 Closed Prison at the outskirts of İstanbul, Öztürk writes the following about her torture for six months:

"I am a revolutionary woman who was forced to convince herself everyday, who was given an electroshock to be an informant, who was bruised all over her body, who was freezed with cold water and whose sexuality was used against her. I am not the first, but I want to be the last."

CLICK - On trial 'because she watched a lynching on the sidewalk'

What happened?

In her hearing of the case held at the İstanbul 3rd Heavy Penal Court on October 3, 2019, the prosecutor's announced his opinion as to the accusations and referred to Ayten Öztürk's watching of a lynching in the neighborhood as criminal evidence against her:

"In his identification during the investigation, defendant Mesut Pekgöz identified Ayten Öztürk as the person who attended the meeting on drugs and gambling at Okmeydanı Rights and Freedoms Association and was watching the act of lynching while Selahadding Cirit was being lynched..."

Another evidence brought against Öztürk is that she attended a meeting at Okmeydanı Rights and Freedoms Association: "In the statements of ... defendant Burak Altundal, [he indicated that] he had seen Ayten Öztürk in the association building, they put the phones in the basket in the association, the personnel there told them to leave the phone..."

Öztürk is now facing a life sentence aggravated twice on charge of "deliberate killing" twice as per the Article 82/1 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) and as per the Article 5/1 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMK).

The file of the case where she is on trial "because she was caught with a fake passport" has been merged with this case.

The People's Law Bureau has made the following statement about the incident of "abduction from Lebanon" mentioned by the lawyer:

"The court case where Ayten Öztürk is now standing trial is based on the incident where a person named Selahaddin Cirit was lynched in Okmeydanı in 2008 and lost his life in hospital as a result of this. There was no arrested defendant in the case that had been going on for over 10 years.

"Ayten Öztürk was taken into custody at Beirut Airport on March 8, 2018. She was held there for five days; then, while she was being handed over to the authorities in Turkey on March 13, 2018, a bag was put over her head and she was taken to an unknown location. She was subjected to severe torture in this unknown location for 6 months.

"At the end of this 6-month period, Öztürk was left in a field in Yapracık, Ankara on August 28, 2018 with two suitcases and one backpack. A few minutes after she was left there, she was detained by the Ankara Counterterrorism teams. She was held in detention for 3 days; she was referred to the courthouse on August 31, 2018 and arrested."

While Öztürk filed a criminal complaint about this torture, her criminal complaint has ended in a decision of non-prosecution.

First released pending trial, then arrested again

In her letter to bianet, Ayten Öztürk says, "I will keep on speaking out so that others will not go through what I lived through."

Öztürk briefly writes the following in her letter:

"The injustice continued after the torture for six months. I have been arrested for 3 years. In fact, in a file where a ruling of release on probation was given, I now face a life sentence aggravated two times.

"Everything started when I was detained at Lebanon airport on March 8, 2018. I was held in detention for six days at the Immigration Bureau in Lebanon. I was illegally handed over to Turkish authorities on March 13. My hands were handcuffed behind my back, my eyes were blindfolded, a bag was put over my head and I was taken to a plane in that state.

"I was taken to a torture house in Turkey. I was stripped off stark naked. I was taken to a cell covered with foam. I was held there for days, with my eyes covered, hands tied. I was offered cooperation. They hung me to the rings on the wall from my wrists. They gave electroshocks to all parts of my body for days, shouting me to 'speak.' There were burn marks all over me.

"They wired up my fingertips. Harassing me with a bludgeon, they talked about how they raped others. There were also others who were being tortured, but I was the only woman. It was a place without air, water and sunlight that they themselves defined as 'the depth of hell.'

"They were saying to me, 'We have the state behind us. We are given unlimited authority. This state made a plane take off for you, you cannot leave this place if you do not speak.' I was bruised, soared and burned all over my body. They tried to erase the marks, but failed.

"When they could not get what they wanted until the end of six months, they told me, 'We will hand you over to justice, you will rot in prison' and left me in a field in Ankara on August 28. Right afterwards, the police came and took me into custody there. Held in detention for three days, I was arrested. There is no concrete evidence in the trial, except for a couple of statements. I was previously released on probation in this file. Even though there has been no change in the file, I have been arrested for three years."

Concluding her letter, Ayten Öztürk writes, "I lost 25 kilos in torture. 898 wounds-marks were found in my body. The wounds in my body have healed, but the wounds inside me won't heal until this injustice is eliminated. Join your voice with mine." (AS/SD)

Ayça Söylemez

[email protected]

all articles of the author

Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Felsefe Bölümü mezunu. Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi Sosyoloji bölümünde yüksek lisans yaptı. Marmara Üniversitesi İletişim Bilimleri’nde doktora yapıyor. Vatan, Akşam, HaberTürk ve Hürriyet gazetelerinin yazıişleri ve dış haberler bölümünde çalıştı. Güncel Hukuk dergisinde yazıları yayınlandı. BirGün’de Anonim adlı köşeyi yazıyor. 2011’den bu yana bianet’te İnsan Hakları Editörü.