A married couple, a man of 61 and a woman of 60, have been subjected to torture and mistreatment while in police custody in Turkey’s southeastern province of Şanlıurfa (Riha), according to their lawyer.
Lawyers from the Şanlıurfa Bar Association met on Friday with three people from the province’s Suruç district who had been detained by the police on suspicion of being members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The lawyers recorded evidence of alleged torture and maltreatment during their visit to the anti-terror branch of the province’s police headquarters, where the three people had been held.
The bar association’s human rights centre stated that they had observed evidence of physical torture in two detainees, including swellings and bruises.
According to the centre, the authorities violated the rules by allowing the police to accompany the detainees during their medical checks in hospital, despite apparent evidence of torture.
The lawyers stated that they intend to lodge complaints against police officers for torture and maltreatment as well as against related public authorities for negligence. The bar association will share its detailed report on the incident in the coming days.
“A mother and a father, both in their sixties, have been subjected to torture at Urfa’s anti-terror branch. Beating, bastinado, strangulation, being thrown into a pit, a gun to the head…,” Ali Aslan, a lawyer representing the three detainees said.
