ALLEGATIONS of torture and summary beatings in police stations in the north are to be investigated by a ‘parliamentary’ committee, Turkish Cypriot ‘deputies’ decided yesterday.
The decision came after Communal Democracy Party (TDP) leader Mehmet Cakici presented ‘deputies’ with written and photographic evidence of two recent cases of torture that allegedly took place in police stations in the north. It is the first time that the Turkish Cypriot police, who remain under the command of the Turkish military, have faced any form of external scrutiny.
Speaking in ‘parliament’ yesterday, Cakici told deputies of a recent case where a US citizen was taken in by police for questioning after being accused of theft. While in custody, the suspect was said to have received severe beatings from police to his arms, back, legs and buttocks. Photographs of the bruising, which Cakici presented to his fellow deputies, were taken by an official from the American Embassy in Cyprus and had been passed on to the victim’s family. In a second case, a Turkish man wrongly accused of child molestation suffered severe internal injuries when police inserted a baton into his anus. According to Cakici, the man has since had to be fitted with a colostomy device.
“We have to face the fact that torture is a regular occurrence in our jails,” Cakici said, adding that his numerous attempts to gain information from police over those and other cases of torture had been met with silence.
Other incidences of police malpractice, such as not allowing suspects access to a lawyer, were rife, according to Cakici.
“The police cannot be left to investigate themselves; we need an independent body that can do this,” he said, adding that currently “there is nowhere to turn if you have a complaint to make”.
Giving his backing to Cakici’s call, leader of the main opposition Republican Turkish Party (CTP) Ferdi Sabit Soyer said, “We should not only deal with this problem because of the international shame that will come on us because an American citizen is involved; we have to do it for ourselves. Our police need to be educated on this and submit to inspections”.
‘Prime minister’ Irsen Kucuk also called on his National Unity Party (UBP) members to back Cakici’s proposal, saying the issue was a “humanitarian” one, and that allegations of torture, along with other problems such as human trafficking and prostitution, were “giving the country a bad name”.
Head of the Turkish Cypriot Human Rights Foundation (KTIHV) Emine Colak yesterday welcomed the formation of a committee on torture.
“The use of forensic methods for finding evidence of crimes is very limited, which means police often beat suspects in order to gain confessions or information,” she said.
Colak added that attempts by the KTIHV to instigate enquiries by the police over their actions had been met with silence in all but one case.
“Once we received a two sentence response saying there was no evidence to support allegations of torture,” she said, adding that not investigating such allegations was in itself a violation of human rights.
