Three Kurdish teenagers said they were subjected to police torture during detention in Turkey’s southeastern city of Van, lawyers from the Van Bar Association reported on Sunday.
Turkish police on Feb. 15 detained the three teenagers, aged between 14 and 17, and used violence against them during and after their detention in Van’s Ipekyolu district, according to victims’ statements. The youngsters told the Van Bar Association that the police beat them, kicked them in the head, hit them with batons and put their heads into toilet bowls, the Ahval news site reported.
“After I came home from work, the police detained me due to incidents in the neighborhood and got me on the ground. They struck my back with batons. They kicked me in the stomach with their boots, pulled my hair and hit me in the face. They took me to the police station [near the Tuşba Shopping Center] and continued beating me there. They put my head into a toilet bowl and insulted me,” one of the victims, aged 17, said.
A 16-year-old victim said the police mistreated him as well. “They questioned me at the police station, but I told them I knew nothing. They beat me and swore at me.”
The third victim, a 14-year-old Kurd who lost partial vision in his left eye due to the police torture, said he was going shopping when the police detained him.
“Eight police officers assaulted me. …They took me to the police station after they beat me on the street. They put my head into a toilet bowl. Right now, there is blurriness and itching in my left eye.”
The Van Bar Association said hospital reports proved the three teenagers were mistreated and subjected to torture, sustaining serious injuries.
Perihan Duman, the mother of one of the detained minors, said: “I am haunted by images of my son. I haven’t been able to sleep for two days,” while his father, Hacı Duman, added, “The police called us at 3:30 a.m., long after my son was detained and badly beaten.”
The bar association filed a criminal complaint against the police officers involved the incident.
The families claim the police try to extend detention of minors, hoping that signs of torture will disappear in time. (SCF with Ahval, Bold Medya)
