At yesterday’s (4 March) hearing in the torture killing of Engin Çeber, who died after being arrested by the police on 28 September 2008, 13 police officers accused of torturing Çeber were questioned.

Police officers felt invincible

Taylan Tanay, lawyer for the Çeber family, told bianet that, during questioning, the police officers called the lawyers by their first names, insulted them and laughed at questions; they also interfered in court procedures continuously.

Following protests by the joint attorneys, who accused the judges of the Bakırköy 14th Heavy Penal Court of indulging the suspects and not acting objectively, the judges decided to withdraw.

Higher court will decide

The decision to withdraw from the case will be evaluated by a higher court, the Bakırköy 15th Heavy Penal Court. The court can decide to let the same court continue in the case or ask for the formation of a new one.

The lawyers for the Çeber family have demanded that the police officers on duty at the Istinye police station be tried for torture. Çeber’s three friends who had also been also arrested, Özgür Karakaya, Cihan Gün and Aysu Baykal, had given a detailed account of being tortured there.

At yesterday’s hearing, the lawyers also demanded that the police officers be tried in detention, but this was rejected by the court.

Court declined to investigate the tampering of evidence

Tanay told bianet that the police officers are rejecting accusations of torture, saying that they used “proportional force”. They have claimed that the four torture victims hit their own heads against the wall and threw themselves to the ground.

Following the arrest of the four victims in Metris Prison in Istanbul, the camera system was interfered with manually. As a result, video recordings have been lost. However, the court declined to open a separate investigation into this loss of evidence.

The lawyers have demanded an investigation of prison guard Selahattin Apaydın, whom recordings show to have been in prison on the day of the torturing, that is 7 October, as well as an investigation of a document prepared by prison management which alleges that Apaydın was on leave on the relevant day. Again, the court rejected these demands.

Some recordings will be watched, witnesses heard

On 15 April, the participants in the court case will be able to watch the recordings that were saved from Metris Prison. In addition, four other people who stayed in cell B-8 with Çeber will be called as witnesses.

The Parliamentary Human Rights Commission has prepared a report stating that journalist Tuncay Özkan, himself arrested and taken to Metris Prison as part of the Ergenekon investigation, has said that he heard Çeber being tortured. The court has decided to ask for the report.

Another document which the court will demand is a report by the Istanbul Bar Association on the Istiniye police station in Istanbul where Çeber and his three friends were taken into custody first.

Arrested for protesting against police violence

Çeber and three friends had taken part in a protest against a police shooting of a young man Ferhat Gerçek, who has been paralysed as a result of the bullet.

Tortured in prison, Çeber lost his life in the intensive care unit of Şişli Etfal Hospital in Istanbul on 10 October.

The forensic medical report stated that Çeber had died of torture. Minister of Justice Mehmet Ali Şahin had accepted the verdict and issued an official apology. (TK/AG)