Human rights group says police violence on rise in Turkey

A human rights organization said in a report released Friday that Turkey's failure to prosecute police officers has resulted in a rise in police violence. (UPDATED)

Human rights group says police violence on rise in Turkey

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported at least 28 cases of police violence since 2007, including excessive use of force on demonstrators and police shootings that resulted in at least seven deaths.

Under reforms aimed at winning entry to the EU, Turkey made progress to stamp out torture and ill-treatment of detainees.

But police use of violence has increased following changes to the law in June 2007 which give police broad powers to use lethal force and encourage arbitrary searches, the group said.

The group said people filing complaints against police are often prosecuted for forcibly resisting police, while investigations into complaints are often tainted by police interference.

A European Commission report last month on Ankara's progress towards EU entry also mentioned a rise in reports of torture.

"Victims of police violence we interviewed frequently told us that the police feel untouchable," the report said.

According the justice ministry statistics, 2,854 complaints were filed against police in 2006 for alleged torture or excessive use of force and 3,339 in 2007. There were 104 convictions in 2006 and 48 in 2007.

In a major sign of that Turkish police has been a fear factor in the society; five suspects, dressed as police, raided a crowded restaurant in Istanbul and kidnapped a woman and then raped her for six hours. The attackers faced no resistance or questioning during the incident.

HRW urged the government to take measures to tackle the problem, among them the establishment of an independent police complaints authority to investigate police misconduct, strict monitoring of exercise of stop-and-search powers and action to ensure rapid prosecution of abusive officers.Hurriyet

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