Torture of child in Diyarbakır: Lawyers appeal against officers' release

Photo: MA

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The Diyarbakır Bar Association has filed an appeal against the release of two police officers investigated for the torture of a 14-year-old child in the Lice district, head of the bar has said.

During the Newroz celebrations on March 21, police allegedly tortured the child identified with the initials Y.D. in an armored vehicle. The child was hospitalized after the incident. After a criminal complaint, five officers were detained. A court arrested three of them for "wilful injury" while releasing two others.

The charges pressed against the officers are part of the efforts to cover up the crimes of the officers, Nahit Eren, head of the bar, told Mezopotamya Agency (MA), saying that they should rather have been charged with torture.

The child was tortured both physically and psychologically, he said. "In the file, there is a typical crime of torture. There is a physical intervention and a mentally tormenting intervention. These are acts incompatible with human dignity. But neither the prosecutor's office nor the interrogatory judge wanted to see the torture." (AS/VK)