A criminal court in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır (Amed) on Sunday ruled in favour of arresting three police officers accused of torturing a 14-year-old boy last week.
The court in the province’s Lice district released two other police officers accused of the same crime, lawyer Nahit Even announced on Twitter.
The three police officers are arrested over malicious injury under the category of ‘crimes of torture’, the lawyer added.
The teenager was reportedly abducted and tortured by the police officers after Newroz (Kurdish new year) celebrations in Diyarbakır on 21 May. The officers threatened to kill the boy unless he memorised the lyrics of the Turkish anthem, later dumping him in a remote location with hands and feet tied.
Following a criminal complaint lodged by Diyarbakır Bar Association and an investigation launched by prosecutors in the province on 22 May, two of the torture suspects were taken into custody in Lice, while the remaining were detained in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
