Police torture child in Diyarbakır

Photo: AA/File

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14-year-old Y.D. was unlawfully held by the police, tortured, and then left in a deserted area on March 21, in Lice, Diyarbakır, the major Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. After the incident was reported in the media, the father and their lawyer were called to the prosecutor's office to give their statements. 

Mezopotamya Agency reported on Tuesday (March 21) that Y.D. was kept by four police officers when he was returning home with a 10-year-old friend in Lice, taken to a deserted place, and forced to say that he is Turkish, beaten with the riffle butt and then left, his hands and feet tied up.

Y.D.'s father and their lawyer were invited by the Lice Prosecutor's office to give their statements on Wednesday after the event was reported in the media.

His father stated earlier that he was also threatened by the police at the hospital.

"The child risks losing his eye"

The lawyer of the family, Ramazan Karalp announced that Y.D.'s treatment in the hospital was continuing and he risked losing his right eye.

He also described the event in more detail. Accordingly, the police officers force the child to say that he is Turkish. When he does not, they ask him to memorize the Turkish National Anthem by the next day and threaten to kill him if he does not. Then they throw him away near a river.

Karalp added, "They leave him in a deserted place his hands and his feet tied up. A villager hears the child and notices him. They take him to the hospital immediately. The Lice State Hospital prepares an assault report and sends the child to the Dicle University Hospital. The child is now being treated there and he risks losing his right eye. His eye is bleeding and he is not able to open his eye." (EMK/AEK/PE)