The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) has presented harrowing evidence of the torture inflicted on Aysun Işınkaralar, 35, who was taken into police custody on 7 May 2018 for her affiliation with the Gulen Movement, Kronos Haber reported.
Security Directorate of the Afyon Province: Notorious for torture and sexual violence
Ms Aysun Işınkaralar was taken into police custody for working in dormitory in Afyonkarahisar that was closed by emergency decree. Subsequently, she was placed in the custody of the Anti-Terror Branch of the Afyon Police Directorate, an entity infamous for allegations of torture.
Ms Işınkaralar’s case is part of a wider, deeply disturbing pattern of torture and sexual violence against male and female detainees at Afyon police headquarters since 2016. Sexual violence against female detainees has included threats of rape, stripping and nipple piercing, while at least one male detainee was actually raped. In a 2021 ruling, the Turkish Constitutional Court upheld a male detainee’s complaint of rape in the same facility and ordered an investigation.
Fight to hold perpetrators accountable
After being released 14 months ago, following a 4.5-year sentence, Ms Işınkaralar approached the The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey on March 21, 2023, to formally document the abuse she endured. Her testimony is harrowing:
“They put me in a room, and immediately a sack covered my head. They squeezed my throat until I couldn’t breathe. They shocked my ankles with electricity. I shouted ‘Allah’ in pain, … They threatened to strip me naked, held a gun to my ear …there were 4-5 police officers, as far as I could count from their shoes.”
“First, they called my name. As I entered, a door shut behind me, a sack obscured my vision. I heard someone else’s agony… They made me run bent over, then threw me into a room.” She detailed further mistreatment, including being forced to run in a bowed position and being thrown into a room, where she was strangled and electrocuted, “I felt the electricity down to my teeth and hair strands,”
When she resisted implicating others and admitting any wrong doing, the intimidation escalated: One officer ordered to get her stripped. “But I refused. A voice inside me said, ‘Just make your voice heard to your Lord’. When I cried out to God for strength, they ceased” she recalls. The brutality she suffered also took the form of psychological torment, as she explained: “A policewoman would draw and point her gun at me repeatedly. HRFT experts called this ‘mock execution’—a form of torture.”
Power of social media and attempts for covering up the torture
She also underscores the the power of social media to fight the torture. Ms Işınkaralar states after MPs Sezgin Tanrıkulu and Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu exposed the ongoing torture in Afyon Police HQ, torture against her ceased.
Inadequate Medical Examination
During the medical examination at the end of her detention, Ms Işınkaralar bravely exposed her torturers. “A doctor called Ali Konu examined me. I told him about the torture and the attempt to rape me. He documented everything,” she says. But the torturers replaced this report with a forged one by a doctor who had never seen her, she adds. But she did not give up. When she was taken to prison after being remanded in pre-trial detention, she persuaded the prison doctor to examine her and document the torture. The doctor’s report confirmed her complaints, stating that she had “traces of beatings and a 0.5 cm scar on both ankles” where she had been electrocuted.
Her account of the falsification of medical reports is consistent with the findings of national and international organisations. The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture has consistently highlighted this issue. In its 2019 report, it stated: “The CPT cannot but conclude that the system of compulsory medical checks (at the beginning and end of police custody), in its current form, is a mere formality and does not serve its intended purpose”.
Torture and Corruption
Moreover, this case is reflective of systemic issues highlighted in a UN Human Rights Council report, where law enforcement corruption has been linked to torture.
“In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of the pervasive, incapacitating impact of corruption on the effective, transparent and accountable functioning of public institutions (target 16.6 of the Sustainable Development Goals), including the protection of human rights. Corruption not only hinders the effective implementation of human rights obligation, but also creates an environment conducive to human rights abuses, including torture and ill-treatment.” (A/HRC/40/59)
In a tragic development, the chief of the Anti-Terror Branch of Afyon Police where Ms Işınkaralar and others were tortured committed suicide after his involvement in the embezzlement of money and jewellery seized during police operations was exposed.
Ms Işınkaralar case is a call for immediate and rigorous investigations to ensure justice and to prevent further human rights violations within these institutions.
Categories: Torture and Impunity, Turkey Human Rights Blog