Onur Yaser Can case: New investigation against 5 police officers

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An investigation has been launched against five police officers who forged the detention minutes and maltreated Onur Yaser Can.

Taken into custosy in 2010, 28-year-old Can was subjected to torture in detention. Depressed and traumatized, he took his life.

His family previously appealed against the decision to not give a permission for investigation against the five police officers who tortured Onur Yaser Can in detention and forged the documents.

As reported by Hacı Bişkin from Gazete Duvar news website, upon the repeated application of the Can family, the court has requested an investigation against the five people, including former chief inspector Hakan Aydın and Salih Bahar, who were involved in the torture.

Prosecutor took Can's note into account

The family of Onur Yaser Can filed a criminal complaint against the officers in 2010, accusing them of "torture", "misconduct in office" and "sexual assault." However, the prosecutor's office did not give a permission for investigation. They were only tried for "forgery of documents."

Mehmet Ümit Erdem, the lawyer of the Can family, recalled the decision of non-prosecution against these people given by the prosecutor's office in 2011 and said that the Heavy Penal Court ruled for a criminal complaint to be filed against the related police officers at the prosecutor's office based on the evidence collected during the trial for 8 years.

The Can family's layer Çiğdem Şat has also said:

"The protective shields of these people have been removed. They will be investigated now. Yaser Can left a note before committing suicide. In that note, he was talking about the ill treatment he had been subjected to. The prosecutor's office has referred to these notes as a jusitification. Hakan Aydın and the police officers directed by him will be investigated."

Note left by Can

Can's mother Hatice Can said that the note was found in a back pocket of his son's trousers after he committed suicide. The note read, "After I was stripped stark naked, made to kneel down on the floor and cough, [...] I gave the number and name I had reached. I was scared."

The İstanbul Regional Administrative Court has accepted the family's appeal against the refusal to give a permission for an investigation against the police officers who tortured Onur Yaser Can and forged documents. Accordingly, the court has ruled that a permission shall be given to investigate the related five people on charge of "misconduct in office."

There will now be a new investigation against five people, including former chief inspector Hakan Aydın as well as Soner Gündoğdu and Salih Bahar, who were previously given a sentence for "forgery."

What happened?

Onur Yaser Can, who deposed at the Narcotics Branch Office twice in 2010 and subjected to maltreatment and strip search in detention, committed suicide after he was summoned to depose for the third time. His mother Hatice Can also committed suicide in March 2014.

When Onur Yaser Can lost his life, he was 28 years old and his mother Hatice Can was 57 years old.

In 2010, Onur Yaser Can's parents wrote an article titled "They have stolen Onur Yaser's Life" and briefly said the following:

"Even though it was confirmed by trial that our son, who was raised with so much efforts, engaged in painting, music and sports and extremely successful in architecture, possessed 11.4 grams of marijuana, the security officers paced the way for the process which would cause him to take his own life while he could have benefited from supervised release and protective measures and lead a healthy young man, experience so many beautiful things and loves and create so many unprecedented works." (EMK/SD)