Tortured by soldiers in detention, woman to be paid damages

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The Constitutional Court has announced its ruling on the application of Feride Kaya, who was taken into custody in Çorum province in September 2002 and tortured by two gendarmerie officers in detention.

Finding the application of Kaya admissible, the Constitutional Court has concluded that the prohibition of torture as per the third clause of the Article 17 of the Constitution was violated on material and procedural grounds. Accordingly, Feride Kaya will now be paid non-pecuniary damages.

She was detained in 2002

Feride Kaya was taken into custody in Çorlu on September 27, 2002 for allegedly "aiding the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C)." She was taken to the Seydim Gendarmerie Command, where she was given an electric shock and battered by two soldiers.

While Feride Kaya said that "she was subjected to torture" while she was in detention, the doctors who examined her gave a report indicating that "she was not battered or subjected to force."

Kaya went to the prosecutor's office on December 2002 and filed a criminal complaint against both the law enforcement officers and the doctor.

In her petition to the office, she also recounted that she was threatened by the soldiers "with killing her son" so that she would not tell anyone about the torture. When she was examined at the Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, she was given a medical report documenting torture.

A public case was filed

The Çorum Chief Public Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against two gendarmerie officers and two doctors. As the court accepted the indictment, a lawsuit was filed at the Çorum 1st Heavy Penal Court.

Testifying as to the offense charged, doctors said that Kaya might have been battered after the report was prepared and there were no signs of trauma on her body when they examined the woman.

As for the gendarmerie, they said Kaya could have been battered by the organization or in prison, arguing that they did not torture her. One of the officers said, "The organization tries to intimidate public officials like that."

Doctors and gendarmerie acquitted

Handing down its ruling on November 24, 2011, the Çorum 1st Heavy Penal Court ruled that two gendarmerie officers should be acquitted as there was no concrete evidence proving that Kaya was tortured by them. Announcing its ruling on two doctors as well, the court dropped the charges against them on the ground that statutory limitations were violated.

While the 8th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation upheld the verdict on doctors, it reversed the one on soldiers.

In the retrial of soldiers following this reversal, the local court insisted on its previous ruling o acquittal and, making an examination after an appeal was lodged against the verdict, the Court of Cassation's General Board of Criminal Department ruled that the case should be dropped.

Application to the Constitutional Court

Having exhausted all legal remedies, Kaya applied to the Constitutional Court on March 29, 2013. She indicated that "she had been subjected to the physical assaults of the law enforcement during her detention and no effective investigation had been conducted in the acts in question."

Considering the statements of Feride Kaya, the statements of witnesses, findings in different medical reports, the court ruling indicating that she was subjected to ill treatment and the Court of Cassation ruling of reversal supporting the local court ruling, the Constitutional Court has concluded that the applicant was subjected to ill treatment.

With the Article 17 of the Constitution on prohibition of torture and ill treatment violated on material and procedural grounds, Kaya will now be paid 90 thousand lira in non-pecuniary damages. (HA/SD)