The European Parliament’s Turkey rapporteur, Nacho Sánchez Amor, has expressed deep concern over allegations made in court by a jailed executive at an Istanbul municipality-owned company that she was strip-searched and threatened with losing custody of her children while in police custody.
In a series of posts on X, Amor said he was deeply affected by the testimony of Fatoş Pınar Türker, praised her conduct during a recent court hearing and expressed concern that other women may have experienced similar treatment without attracting public attention.
“I’m equally horrified by the thought of how many other women, unknown to the public, may have endured a similar horrible experience,” Amor wrote.
Amor also praised Türker for defending herself in court “with impressive dignity and resolve” despite spending 15 months in detention.
“On the other side is the Türkiye I detest: the one represented by those who abuse power to humiliate and cruelly mistreat innocent people,” he wrote, criticizing what he described as threats involving Türker’s daughters.
Türker, the general manager of Medya A.Ş., a company owned by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, made the allegations during a court hearing Tuesday in a case involving officials and associates linked to jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a leading opposition figure from the Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Türker told the court that officers at Istanbul police headquarters ordered her to remove her clothes, expose her genitals and bend over during what she described as a degrading strip-search. She also alleged that a prosecutor later threatened to have social services take custody of her children after she said she wanted to consult her lawyer before providing additional testimony.
The Istanbul Police Department denied Türker’s allegations, describing them as “baseless claims” and saying all detention, search and processing procedures are conducted in accordance with Turkish law and human rights standards.
The allegations also sparked criticism from Turkish legal experts and civil society groups. Criminal law scholar Prof. Dr. İzzet Özgenç said requiring a detainee to remove all clothing would amount to a body examination rather than a search and argued that if proven, such conduct could constitute torture carried out under the color of state authority.
The Federation of Women’s Associations of Turkey (TKDF) said the alleged treatment, if confirmed, would violate both the UN Convention Against Torture and the European Convention on Human Rights and called for an independent investigation.
Türker is among officials and associates linked to İmamoğlu who are being prosecuted as part of a broader corruption investigation targeting Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. Critics say the proceedings are aimed at sidelining one of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rivals, while the government denies interfering in the judiciary and says courts operate independently.
