There are scratches, but not deadly: Forensic report on 'police torture' in Turkey's southeast

Duvar English

A report prepared by the Forensic Medicine Institute after claims of police torture has said that there are scratches on the people who said that they were tortured by police, but that the wounds "are not deadly."

A picture that surfaced in May last year showed people under custody lying on the floor of the garden of police headquarters in the Halfeti district of the southeastern province of Urfa.

The expert report prepared by gendarmerie officers as part of an investigation launched into torture allegations of 54 people ruled out the claims after examinations of security footage from police headquarters, Urfa Courthouse and the hospital.

The Forensic Medicine Institute's report admitted "scratches" on the bodies of those detained, but added, "They are not deadly."

The report featured statements of 18 people who claimed to have been tortured, with one of them saying that he was subjected to eight different methods of torture for 12 days.

"They put a hood over my head and tied my hands. They stripped me and gave electric shocks to my private parts," Mesopotamia Agency cited Cindi Zincirkıran as saying.

Speaking to the agency, Urfa Bar Association's Human Rights Center head Gökhan Dayık said that torture has been a systematic practice in Urfa since 2015, adding that they witnessed it countless times.

He also said that the issue came to light after the collective torture case in Halfeti.

Dayık pointed to the fact that the expert report was prepared by three gendarmerie personnel.

"This report wasn't prepared in an objective manner," Dayık said.