'They made me lick the floor': Trans woman tortured, harassed in Taksim Police Station

Photo: csgorselarsiv.org

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Trans woman M.K. said she was tortured in the Taksim Police Station in Beyoğlu, İstanbul. The police chief first harassed her and then forced her to lick the floor.

According to M.k.'s account, the incident took place at around 2.30 a.m. on May 4. While M.K. and her friends were chatting at the entrance of Sadri Alışık street, a neighborhood guard came to them and said transphobic words. After sexist swears, he called the police.

A gray-haired commissioner, whom they later learned was the chief of the police station, came. The neighborhood guard and the commissioner dragged M.K. by the hair, beat her and brought her to the police station.

Her friend witnessed the torture

According to M.K.'s account, the commissioner and the guard continued to batter her in the police station. She received a severe blow on her nose. She said they harassed her by touching every part of her body, they got her on the ground by pulling her hair and forced her to lick the floor. M.K.'s friend witnessed this incident.

After the incident of violence, M.K. went to the Taksim Training and Research Hospital and received a medical report.

Eren Keskin, the lawyer of the trans woman and the co-chair of the Human Rights Association (İHD), filed a criminal complaint against the chief and officers at the Taksim Police Station and the neighborhood guard.

In the criminal complaint, Keskin said another trans woman was subjected to violence and demanded the prosecutor's office request the medical report from the Taksim Training and Research Hospital.

She also demanded security camera footage at the police station be examined. Noting that international conventions had been violated, Keskin demanded the officers be put on trial for torture, harassment and discrimination.

The second-worst country for LGBTI+s

According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association (ILGA)'s 2021 Rainbow Index, Turkey is the second-worst country in Europe in LGBTI+ rights. The country has implemented only three of the 69 criteria determined by the group.

Turkey has been 48th out of 49 countries in the last four years, surpassing only Azerbaijan.

Turkish Penal Code article 94 - Torture

A public officer who performs any act towards a person that is incompatible with human dignity, and which causes that person to suffer physically or mentally, or affects the person's capacity to perceive or his ability to act of his own will or insults them shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of three to twelve years

Turkish Penal Code article 105 - Harassment

If a person is subject to sexual harassment by another person, the person performing such an act is sentenced to a term of imprisonment from three months to two years or to a judicial fine; and if the act of sexual harassment is committed against a child, the offender is sentenced to imprisonment from six months to three years upon complaint of the victim.

Turkish Penal Code article 122 - Discrimination

Discrimination on the ground of hatred based on differences of language, race, nationality, color, gender, disability, political view, philosophical belief, religion or sect requires a penalty of imprisonment for a term of one year to three years.

(EMK/VK)