Detained Children Complain from Torture Under Custody

12 children have been taken into detention in Adana. They are part of a group of children that was arrested under allegations of participating in a protest action against the closure of pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) and against prison conditions for Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). 2 of the children taken into detention filed a complaint at the Public Prosecutor's Office because they were exposed to torture.

The children were arrested because of a show of a pirate copy in the town of Küçük Dikili in the province of Adana. They had been taken to the Adana F Type prison. Later on, they were transferred to the Pozantı Regional Detention Children's House. 15-year-old M.A. and 16-year-old H.Ö. claim that they were exposed to torture during custody and in the Adana F type prison. The children's lawyer Tugay Bek told bianet that he saw signs of assaults on the children's bodies when he talked to them in prison.

"Torture was imposed in all police station branches and in prison"

Bek said that the children were taken into a car with a civil number plate within their neighbourhood. The children were beaten with a rifle butt in the car. They were brought to a nearby orange plantation where the beating continued. Bek argued that the children were forced to accept all accusations directed by the police officers who beat them.

Bek furthermore reported that the children were brought to the Adana Police Directorate Anti-Terror Branch Command where they were again beaten and also insulted by the police officers. The assault was carried on in the Children Branch Directorate, Bek explained.

According to the lawyer, the children were threatened by the police not to testify before they made their statement at the prosecutor's office. To beware of the children to be exposed to torture again, they were forced to accept all accusations put up against them, Bek indicated.

Bek stated that after being brought to the Adana F Type Prison, the children were beaten by a group of 20 gendarmerie officers in the entrance of the prison. Bek claimed that he saw the signs of the assault on the children's bodies with his own eyes when he came to the prison.

Apart from the prosecutor's office, Bek also applied to the Human Rights Association (İHD) Adana Branch, the Human Rights Commission of the Adana Bar Association, the Human Rights Committee of the Adana Governorship and the parliamentary Human Rights Commission.

Lawyer Bek added that so far the complaints had the results that since last week children taken into detention in Adana are brought straight to the Pozantı Regional Detention Children's House instead of taking them to the Adana F Type Prison. (İP/VK)