EXTERNAL

AI Index: EUR 44/18/95

Amnesty International

International Secretariat

1 Easton Street

London WC1X 8DJ

United Kingdom

Tel: (44) (71) 413 5500

Fax: (44) (71) 956 1157

January 1995

TURKEY

Torture of 13-year-old in Istanbul

On 7 November 1994, an envelope with money and cheques disappeared from the

handbag of one of the owners at the Dual Konfeksiyon garment workshop/store

in the ώiώli district of Istanbul. Suspicion fell on three workers busy

decorating a shop window and on the 13-year-old apprentice Abdullah who had

been asked to look after the telephone while the owner of the handbag was

occupied with a visitor, but who had also been sent away briefly to buy

bread. When a search of the three adult workers, the apprentice and the

workshop brought no result, their employers informed the police. The four

suspects were taken to the local police station and from there to the ώiώli

Investigation Bureau where statements were taken from the three adult

workers. They were released the same evening (after having paid the police

a bribe, according to one newspaper report). Abdullah Salman, however,

remained in police custody until 9 November. Although he protested his

innocence, police kept interrogating him and eventually resorted to torture

to obtain a confession.

His mother learned of his detention when a relative telephoned her.

When she arrived at the police station, the police at the door allegedly

told her: "We consider your son to be our own son. Don't worry, we won't so

much as flick him. He is inside, sitting on a chair."

Abdullah Salman described what really happened: "After they took us

to the Investigation Bureau, they released H. Z. I stayed there with the

other two people. After a while, a police officer took me to the lower

floor. Then the Chief Superintendent came. He said to me, `I think you took

the money'. I said, `No, abi*1, I didn't take it'. He said, `Why do you

tell lies, bastard' and began to hit me.

"Later he choked me and lay me on the ground. He again began to choke

me, and lifted me up and threw me down a few times. While I was on the

ground he hit my knees, and punched me twice.

"Some time later they blindfolded me and trod on my hands. They took

the sock off my left foot and tied something to it. Then they began to give

me electric shocks. My soul really burned [meaning: it really hurt]. First

I thought he had cut off my toe, then it was as if my body did not work

from the waist down. Every now and then they hit my head. When they were

giving me the electric shocks, it was as if it would never end. This went

on for three days. When I shouted out, those in the room shut my mouth and

laughed."

At midnight on 8 November the boy was returned home and left there

for the night. According to his mother, Abdullah was in such a shock that

he ran away even from his mother when he saw her. The police returned the

following morning at 7am and took Abdullah back to the police station.

After three days of torture the police "remembered" the Criminal

Procedure Code which stipulates that those detained for criminal offences

must have access to legal counsel, and called a lawyer, who on arriving at

the police station saw the boy's bruised body. The lawyer demanded access

to a doctor for Abdullah.

The medical report from ώiώli Forensic Medicine Institute certified:

"On the left side of the knee, 2x3cm bruise (from a blow), on the left

small toe, an erosion (bruise), on the back of the upper left forearm 1 x 4

cm erosion, erosion in front and around the neck, erosions behind the left

ear, on the right shoulder - the width of a palm -, and on the right side

of the back. Erosion on the left underside of the chin, cheek, left

kneecap. Unable to work for three days."

On 9 November, the prosecutor released Abdullah Salman. Since then

the family have been informed by the owner of the workshop that the stolen

money (cheques and 100 million Turkish Lira in cash) had been recovered. It

had been stolen by one of the other workers at the workshop. For Abdullah,

however, the story was far from being over. "In the nights he was waking up

screaming, `I didn't steal it, abi'. When he sees a police officer in the

street, he runs and tries to hide. No human being could do this to a 13-

year-old child", says his mother.

Abdullah Salman was examined for five days at the psychiatric unit of

C[,]apa Medical Faculty where the psychiatrist found the traumatized boy to

be "mentally subnormal". He will be examined again six months later to

assess to what extent his treatment at the hands of the police is

responsible for this condition.

Abdullah Salman's mother has lodged a formal complaint against the

police with the public prosecutor in ώiώli. However, no investigation has

yet been opened and to Amnesty International's knowledge none of the police

officers who interrogated Abdullah Salman have been suspended from duty.

The prosecutor's office is said to be awaiting the outcome of the second

psychiatric examination, and the prosecutor assigned to the case due to be

transferred to another post. ώaziye Salman also alleges that the police

called her to the police station after the case had appeared in the

newspapers and later offered her a bribe if she dropped her complaint

against the police officers involved in her son's detention and torture.

She is reported to have said that this was a case which could not be

dropped: "They said they would do nothing and brought him to this state.

What happened to my son today, will it not happen to others tomorrow?"

Amnesty International is appealing for a prompt and full

investigation of the torture of 13-year-old Abdullah Salman in Istanbul and

for those responsible to be brought to justice.

FOOTNOTES/ENDNOTES

*1 `elder brother' - informal term of deference