URFA- The lawyer of the citizens who were detained and tortured for protesting against the construction of the GES in Veranşehir, İbrahim Ekti, said: "The gendarmerie covered their faces with masks and applied systematic violence and torture to 2 citizens for a long time."

 

The Gendarmerie intervened against the citizens who protested against the planned Solar Power Plant (GES) to be built in Düzük hamlet in the rural Kadıköy District of Viranşehir district of Urfa, and detained 9 people. It was alleged that the Gendarmerie, which sprayed pepper gas and fired hundreds of bullets into the air, tortured the citizens it had detained.

 

'HUNDREDS OF BULLETS WERE FIRED' 

 

İbrahim Ekti, the Veranşehir representative of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), who is the lawyer of the citizens who were tortured in custody, said: There have been rumors about a SPP project in the region for nearly 2 years, but that no official information has been provided by any institution until today. Kalyoncu company, which received the GES construction and operation business, gave the construction work to 5 subcontractors. In these, it starts working to close the whole region, starting from the border of the residential areas. A roadworks begins here first. Against this, a common reaction of all the villagers there, including Kadıköy, started against it.”

 

VIOLENCE, THREATS AND INSULTS OF THE COMMANDO 

 

Ekti stated that the incidents calmed down with the intervention of the notables in the village, adding, “The gendarmes started to detain the people they identified during the incidents hours with the end of the incidents after the incident. In particular, a raid was carried out on Düzük hamlet and the people there were detained. During this operation, 7 people were detained in the first stage. 7 people said that they were subjected to violence, threats and serious insults by the soldiers when they were put in the detention vehicle. Later, these citizens are taken to the Demirci Police Station.”

 

‘NO TORTURE!’

 

Emphasizing that when he went to the police station and saw his clients, they still had blood on them and the marks of beating on their faces, Ekti said: “This incident has a historical background. Due to the legal system that has not been settled for a long time in Turkey, and therefore, those who are obliged to perform their law enforcement duties do not take the law as a basis in this process. For this reason, they continue to exhibit violence and battering practices after serious detention and difficult procedures. It is legally forbidden for a person who has been restrained in the law to be the subject of violence, ill-treatment, insults and other things. However, we see that law enforcement officials are seriously applying torture in all social events, almost as if they are taking an order. We have reported the reports we have prepared before on these issues to the judicial authorities. We filed criminal complaints and filed criminal complaints about public officials who were involved in torture. Therefore, the claims that 'there is no torture, there is no torture, everything is carried out on a legal basis' do not reflect the truth. Especially in all social events in the region, we can see that violence is applied very easily by the law enforcement.”

 

Stating that they recorded that their clients were subjected to torture with a hospital report, Ekti said that they, as ÖHD Riha Branch, would follow the process.

 

MA / Ömer Akın