Detainees released in Hakkari

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The seven people who were detained following the police raids on houses in Yüksekova, Hakkari yesterday, including two children aged 15 and 16 among them, were released today (May 30). 

Mezopotamya Agency reported that the seven persons were charged with "being members of a terrorist organization," while photos emerged showing that one of the youth taken into custody, Mustafa Bor, had been beaten. Other detainees were also reported to have been subjected to police violence. 

Four detainees were released after their statements were taken at the Yüksekova Police Headquarters yesterday evening. The two children and Mustafa Bor were released after giving their statements at the Yüksekova Chief Prosecutor's Office. 

What happened?

Dozens of young individuals were detained in house raids carried out in the early hours of the morning in the predominantly Kurdish-populated eastern province of Hakkari on May 29.

It was reported that special operations police officers, who broke the windows and doors of the houses during the raids in the Yüksekova district, subjected the detained individuals to violence using rifle butts, kicks, and punches.

Cevahir Bor, whose son Mustafa Bor was arrested during a raid on their home between 4:00-5:00 a.m., said that the special operations police officers broke into the house by smashing the doors and windows, and they were wearing masks.

Bor had said that the people who entered their house were special operations forces, and their faces were masked. Even though she had spoken in Kurdish and Turkish, they had spoken in a different language, which she believed was Arabic.

"I could hear the sounds of the torture inflicted on my son, who locked himself in the room. They repeatedly hit him with an object on his face," she had told.

(AÖ/PE)