Turkish police assault, detain purge victim protesting post-coup dismissals

Veli Şaçılık, a public servant, whose arm was amputated because of injury led by security forces's operation previously.

A newly emerged video footage shows the moment Turkish police used excessive force against leftist activist Veli Saçılık, a public servant who was fired by a government decree in the aftermath of a July 15 coup attempt in Turkey.

In the 88-second video, viewed hundreds of times on Twitter, Saçılık who has showed solidarity with academic Nuriye Gülmen and teacher Semih Özakça who were detained in 76th day of their hunger strike with demand of returning back their job, was assaulted by a group of police officers and taken into custody for publicly protesting his dismissal under post-coup emergency rule.

Gülmen and Özakça were arrested on terror charges last Tuesday. An immediate indictment prepared by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office seeks a jail sentence of 20 years for Özakça and Gülmen, two educators who went on a hunger strike after they were fired by government decrees in the aftermath of a July 15, 2016 coup attempt. Two educators are accused of “attempting to destroy the unity of the state and nation” and “membership in an armed terrorist organization.”

The educators were detained after police searches of their homes in the early hours of last Monday. They were arrested by an Ankara court on Tuesday on the 76th day of their hunger strike.

The number of public employees sacked by controversial government decrees have exceeded 150,000 since the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.According to a statement from Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ on May 6, 149,833 people have been investigated and 48,636 have been jailed as part of an investigation targeting the Gülen movement since the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey.(SCF with turkeypurge.com) May 28, 2017

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