kong
04-11-2012, 06:48 PM
Turkish Police Brutality Against Woman Caught on Camera
The brutality of Turkish police officers towards a woman in custody has been caught on camera and broadcast. 37-year-old Fevziye Cengiz was detained during a police raid on a music hall in the city of İzmir, near Istanbul. The footage shows Cengiz, while her hands were cuffed behind her back, being beaten and slapped. The incident occurred July 17 but has only now come to light. Since the footage was broadcast on Turkish TV, the police officers have been dismissed and an investigation launched into Dr. Arpat Kandemir who examined the three officers but did not examine the woman. The İzmir Governor, Mustafa Cahit Kıraç has apologized to Cengiz. Turkish media have called for the officers’ superiors to be investigated by the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) for covering up the beating.
Her lawyer Hanife Yildirim told CNN:
The violence against my client, which started when she was taken with the excuse that she did not have her ID, continued at the police station. When I met my client almost a week later, she still had a black eye and there were other marks on her. Cengiz, on her release, filed a formal complaint against the police. But police pressed criminal charges against her for resisting arrest and ‘reckless behavior.’ “She is facing up to six years imprisonment. The charge against the policemen is ’cause of injury through excessive force’ with up to 18 months punishment,” said Yildirim. Cengiz was evicted from her home in İzmir along with her family after the police officers involved called her a “hooker” in statements to the press. Her husband said that his mother and father told them they did not want the family to stay in the neighborhood either. “They told me, ‘We are very fond of Fevziye and we trust her, but people are talking’,” he said. Coskun Usterci, of the Turkish Human Rights Foundation, said complaints of police torture had actually risen in 2011. He said that the exposure of Cengiz’s case was a rarity, because under usual circumstances the in-house police station video camera would have been tampered with.
The brutality of Turkish police officers towards a woman in custody has been caught on camera and broadcast. 37-year-old Fevziye Cengiz was detained during a police raid on a music hall in the city of İzmir, near Istanbul. The footage shows Cengiz, while her hands were cuffed behind her back, being beaten and slapped. The incident occurred July 17 but has only now come to light. Since the footage was broadcast on Turkish TV, the police officers have been dismissed and an investigation launched into Dr. Arpat Kandemir who examined the three officers but did not examine the woman. The İzmir Governor, Mustafa Cahit Kıraç has apologized to Cengiz. Turkish media have called for the officers’ superiors to be investigated by the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) for covering up the beating.
Her lawyer Hanife Yildirim told CNN:
The violence against my client, which started when she was taken with the excuse that she did not have her ID, continued at the police station. When I met my client almost a week later, she still had a black eye and there were other marks on her. Cengiz, on her release, filed a formal complaint against the police. But police pressed criminal charges against her for resisting arrest and ‘reckless behavior.’ “She is facing up to six years imprisonment. The charge against the policemen is ’cause of injury through excessive force’ with up to 18 months punishment,” said Yildirim. Cengiz was evicted from her home in İzmir along with her family after the police officers involved called her a “hooker” in statements to the press. Her husband said that his mother and father told them they did not want the family to stay in the neighborhood either. “They told me, ‘We are very fond of Fevziye and we trust her, but people are talking’,” he said. Coskun Usterci, of the Turkish Human Rights Foundation, said complaints of police torture had actually risen in 2011. He said that the exposure of Cengiz’s case was a rarity, because under usual circumstances the in-house police station video camera would have been tampered with.