Court: Disproportionate violence by police cannot be considered 'official misconduct'

_{Photo: Dilek Şen}

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The investigation ban on the police officers who battered the appointment of a trustee-rector to Boğaziçi University has been lifted. Previously, an investigation ban on police violence during a press statement in Kadıköy, İstanbul, was lifted upon the appeal filed by lawyer Özge Çetin.

This time, the First Administrative Litigation Chamber of the İstanbul Regional Administrative Court permitted an investigation into three police officers at the Sarıyer District Security Directorate, Commissioner B.G. and officers B.B. and H.Ç.

"The verdict may set a precedent"

The Sarıyer Sub-governor's Office had not permitted an investigation against officers in the decision no. 22 dated August 31, 2021, citing article 9 of the Law No. 4483 on the Trial of Civil Servants and Other Public Officials.

The attorneys of the students, Özge Çetin and Efkan Bolaç, had appealed against the decision of the sub-governor's office.

Bolaç told bianet that the court verdict might set a precedent for other investigation files concerning police violence.

"The law applies to official misconduct"

Examining the appeal, the administrative court gave a precedent decision and ruled that police violence "is not related to public duty."

Paragraph 1 of the article 2 of the Law No. 4483 includes the provision, "This Law applies to civil servants and other public officials who perform the essential and permanent duties required by the public services they carry out in accordance with the principles of general administration by the State and other public legal entities, and for crimes committed by other public officials due to their duties."

The court stated that the special investigation proceedings stipulated by the law cannot be applied for "crimes that do not arise from the nature of the duty and are not related to the fulfillment of the duty, even if they are committed while on duty."

"No relation to the duty"

The court said it had been understood that the officers had been probed after "the allegations that plaintiffs had collectively got on a public bus in order to participate in a demonstration in Kadıköy district, they had been removed from the bus due to a ban on demonstrations in Beşiktaş and Sarıyer districts as per a Public Hygiene Committee decision, they had been battered by the police officers in question despite not resisting them, subjected to disproportionate violence and deprived of their freedom and the charged offenses after a preliminary examination had not relation to their duties."

"Permission assessment cannot be made"

"It was clear that the acts of assault, disproportionate violence and deprivation of liberty, which are attributed to the relevant persons, did not arise from their duties," the appeals court ruled.

A permission assessment for opening an investigation into the officers could not be made, the court concluded.

File sent to the prosecutor's office

The court ruled that the actions of the police officers did not need to be subject to administrative permission.

The file was sent to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office for investigation in accordance with the general provisions. (AS/VK)