A father and son in Istanbul have claimed they were mistreated by police officers at an Istanbul police station, the Duvar news website reported.
Yasar Bayır, 43, and his 23-year-old son Hüseyin Bayır were detained last week for resisting the police. The father and son were attending a wedding reception when the police came to say there had been complaints about the noise and requested an end to the party.
Yasar and Hüseyin Bayır resisted the police’s request and were taken to a local police station. According to Hüseyin Bayır some 10 police officers were very rough with his father. At one point he saw officers hitting his father on the back and shouting insults.
“I tried to intervene, and they started beating me, too,” he said. “I got hit in the back and face. I saw there were boot marks on my father’s back. I can’t believe we were mistreated by the police in the middle of Istanbul. I won’t let this go.”
The father and son were kept in detention for four hours after which they were released, and immediately went to the hospital to get a medical report confirming their injuries.
The doctors confirmed they suffered from several broken bones. Yasar Bayır is currently on bedrest at home to recover from his injuries.
Ill-treatment and torture have become widespread and systematic in Turkish detention centers and prisons. Lack of condemnation from higher officials and a readiness to cover up allegations rather than investigate them have resulted in widespread impunity for the security forces.
According to a recent report by the Turkish Human Rights Foundation (TİHV) a record number of people complained about police mistreatment in 2021, with 914 people appealing to the foundation.
An annual report by Amnesty International on the state of human rights in the world revealed that serious and credible allegations of torture and other ill-treatment were made in Turkey last year.
