Police in southern Turkey have allegedly stripped naked, hosed down and beat up a 20-year-old detainee suspected of trafficking unregistered firearms, the Evrensel newspaper reported on Thursday.
The incident took place in Adana, where there has been an increase in gun violence and where two victims, identified only by the initials H.Ş. and D.S., were detained on Nov. 17.
According to Evrensel, the detainees were first subjected to a violent interrogation at the scene of the detention for half an hour. H.Ş. was later taken to a remote location, stripped naked and beaten up. One officer pointed a loaded gun at his head and threatened him with death.
After being taken back to the police detention center, the young men were arrested by a court.
The report said the incident came amid a campaign by the local police to crack down on the increasing gun-related crime in the province.
Torture in custody and prisons is a systematic problem in Turkey where local rights groups, parliamentarians and state authorities receive hundreds of complaints every year.
Although victims can include people detained or imprisoned on any grounds, several documents in recent years have indicated that the practice is more pervasive and systematic when it comes to people detained during demonstrations that include criticism of the government or those targeted on other political grounds such as their alleged ties to political and civil networks not approved of by the government.
Another abuse that made the headlines in recent years was the systematic and arbitrary strip-searches of detainees and prisoners.
In June of this year the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s (PACE) Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights adopted a resolution condemning “the systematic or widespread use of torture and other forms of ill-treatment” in countries such as Russia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
