Protesters in Turkey allege police violence, unwarranted strip searches in custody
ANKARA — Nearly one month after the arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu sparked mass demonstrations across the nation, a growing number of protesters have said they were subjected to police violence and strip searches while in custody.
According to court filings, some cases involve broken ribs, bruised bodies, strip searches without reasonable suspicion as well as police violence on detainees restrained by zip ties. The allegations come after protests gripped about 60 cities across Turkey, resulting in nearly 2,000 detentions since İmamoğlu was taken into custody on March 19.
Turkish authorities, including the Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç, have so far denied allegations of mistreatment in police custody and few public investigations have been launched in response.
The Interior Ministry’s General Directorate of Security (EGM) initially refuted accusations that detainees experienced “ill-treatment” in a March 26 statement, describing the allegations as a "despicable lie”, which should face legal action for “slander against our police.”
Following more recent allegations of “torture” and “strip searches” in police custody, the EGM filed a criminal complaint against protesters on April 11 on charges of “disseminating misleading information to the public”, “insulting the Turkish nation, the Republic of Turkey, the institutions and organs of the state” and “slander”.
Both the Interior Ministry and EGM did not reply to requests for comment for this report.
Court records
As protesters were detained in recent weeks, some allegations were recorded in the court minutes of their exchanges with prosecutors and judges. Below is a collection of statements from lawyers representing individuals claiming they were mistreated in custody. Client names were removed to protect their identities.
A.A.'s lawyer: My client's ribs were broken due to the treatment they received while being detained.
B.A.'s lawyer: They were dragged to the back of the ambulance by a riot police officer. There is a battery report. There was pressure and intimidation. They soiled themselves. They were kept in custody with their urine, and without their relatives being informed. They were only able to get sweatpants after 24 hours. The [badge] numbers of the police officers who made the arrest could not be identified. It is even unclear whether they were police officers. We cannot access any evidence in the file.
C.A.'s lawyer: My client was beaten and tortured at the police station.
D.A.: A police officer saw us and asked if we were from the press. When we said we were going home, he handcuffed us from behind, and said: "I will take you home." I also received blows to my knee area from police officers. There is also a report I received due to the damage to my wrists from being kept in plastic handcuffs for a long time – eight hours.
Strip searches
Some detained protesters have also alleged they were subjected to unwarranted strip searches both in the police departments where they were detained and in the prisons where they were transferred after arrest.
Turkey recap obtained a report from the Ankara Bar Association’s Human Rights Center, which documents allegations of strip searches. One female cited in the report stated:
"They started to strip-search me in the place where I was detained. Upon my resistance to the search, four female police officers, together with their superiors, threw me to the ground. They forcibly tried to take off my clothes. One covered my mouth and cut off my breath, while another police officer squeezed my neck with their legs, preventing me from breathing.”
She continued, “The police superiors and a dark-skinned, tall, long-haired police officer conducted a full strip search. The search was conducted in the lawyer's room. During the search, [a video] recording was stopped, and then restarted after the assault."
Another person, who also said they were subjected to a strip search, shared the following statement:
"During the search, we were asked to stand up and bend over. The officer who did this said, 'There will be torture for those who resist. You heard the sounds of your friend before you.'
In response to this, I said, 'Human dignity will overcome torture.' After this, I was threatened with another search. The search was conducted in the lawyer's meeting room."
Lawyers included the following observations in the report:
"It is evaluated that the separately taken statements of the victims are consistent with each other, that the victims are agitated and traumatized due to the incident, that they are still under the influence of the event at the stage of the interview, and also that the statements of the applicants are within a series of events, and that the applicants are victims of zip ties, strip searches, beatings, threats and insults."
‘In a traumatized state’
Ankara Bar Association Sec. Gen. Elçin Özge Şimşek Çağlayan, one of the lawyers behind the report, said she had not received complaints of torture or ill-treatment by the police for a very long time and that she was surprised by the allegations.
She added legal representatives in her bar association were prevented from meeting with protesters detained in police stations for unusually long periods of time after their arrests.
“We were able to enter the police station after about 6 hours. We met with the victims. Young people aged 19-20 were in a traumatized state."
As a result, the Ankara Bar Association filed a criminal complaint regarding the allegations. Çağlayan said the association is demanding action against the alleged human rights violations and that the public be informed.
In response to the bar association’s report, the Ankara Provincial Police Department made a statement saying they were conducting an investigation into the matter. The police department claimed ‘superficial’ body searches were carried out in accordance with regulations, and that the allegations of ‘mistreatment’ were untrue.
The police department also announced it would resort to legal remedies by filing criminal complaints against "those who make and publish these slanders."
Justice minister response
Justice Min. Tunç also said the allegations regarding ill-treatment and strip searches in custody were not true. Tunç's statement is as follows:
"There can be no unlawful search. There is no such thing as a strip search in our country. The articles are clear. Here, such authority has been given for the sake of prison security, to prevent the entry of prohibited substances, but this is an exceptional search, and in this case, the privacy of the individual is taken into account.”
He continued, “We are determined in maintaining zero tolerance for torture. If there is an example, the judiciary will pursue it. Our people should not give credence to black propaganda that makes it seem like there is torture through smear campaigns. There are cameras everywhere already. When such a finding is made, we immediately make the necessary interventions."
The first objection to Tunç’s statement came from architect Mücella Yapıcı, who was arrested on Gezi protest-related charges in 2022 and spent 17 months in prison. She responded to Tunç on social media as follows:
"Is that so, Mr. Minister? Then let me send you the strip search lawsuit file that I won ... If you are sincere, dismiss the officials who carried out this procedure without your knowledge! Note: I will never forget the torture of the strip search I was subjected to at the age of 62 while in custody due to Gezi."
Yapıcı had filed a criminal complaint against the strip search application carried out when she was detained with her daughter. In the ensuing trial, two police officers were sentenced to five months in prison each for "misconduct in office."
Bruised bodies
Sezgin Tanrıkulu, an MP representing Diyarbakır for the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), has closely followed the cases of detained student protesters. Speaking to Turkey recap, he said many detained students were subjected to police violence.
"I personally met with the young people who were referred for arrest. There are [bruises] and signs of trauma on the visible parts of their bodies,” Tanrıkulu said. “Female students recounted that they were subjected to strip searches, heavy insults and harassment. All of these allegations were recorded in the minutes and a criminal complaint was filed."
Tanrıkulu, who has also been a lawyer in human rights cases for many years, said Turkey has a long history of human rights violations in police custody, primarily in the Kurdish-majority southeast in the 1990s and early 2000s.
“However, after 2016, under the Justice and Development Party (AKP), severe human rights violations spread to the entire geography and began to be committed against everyone, and impunity became a complete government policy,” he told Turkey recap.
“The AKP has moved towards a non-democratic autocracy,” Tanrıkulu continued. “Human rights have become secondary. The primary concept has become the survival of the state and the autocrat. It is not possible for the AKP to prevent torture with this policy."
Further complicating legal complaints by detainees, is the fact police officers are no longer required to exhibit identifying numbers on their anti-riot helmets. In 2009, police helmet numbers were introduced in Turkey, but their use gradually declined in the following years.
As a result, lawyers have complained their clients cannot identify police officers while filing complaints over mistreatment in custody.
Ambiguous legal provisions
Since 2021, strip search procedures are referred to as "detailed searches" in state law. According to the legislation on paper, this type of search is supposed to be applied only when detainees or convicts enter a prison. There is no strip search regulation for people inside police departments.
According to the Regulation on the Administration of Penal Institutions and the Execution of Penal and Security Measures, everyone is required to pass through a security gate upon entering a prison. After a metal detector search, individuals' clothes and bodies are subjected to a physical search, and this search is deemed sufficient.
However, there is an exception to this search in the regulation. If there is "reasonable and serious suspicion" that the person will bring prohibited substances or items into the prison, the strip search procedure called “detailed search” can be applied.
Strip searches must be carried out in a private environment in a way that does not violate the person's sense of shame, and without touching the person's body.
Criminal law expert Dr. Timuçin Köprülü stated that the regulation on strip searches is for the safety of prison personnel as well as for convicts and detainees, and explained that such searches should not be applied to everyone.
He said in Turkish legislation and in international texts, such as the Nelson Mandela rules, strip searches can be conducted within a framework of limits that adhere to proportionality, necessity and legality while respecting human dignity.
“First of all, there must be a reasonable and serious suspicion to conduct this search,” Köprülü told Turkey recap. “The second condition is that it must be impossible to determine [security considerations] in any other way.”
He added, “If these conditions are not met, a strip search cannot be conducted. But after this search is conducted, it must be recorded in a report. [In many Turkish cases,] what is probably missing is this report."
Köprülü also noted there are ambiguous expressions in the legislation regarding strip searches. Primarily, there is uncertainty over what constitutes "reasonable and serious suspicion" and who determines it.
"How [prison] personnel will determine this, and whether they have training, remains a problem,” he said. “Ultimately, the examples before us always emerge in political situations. The official there sees the person as an adversary and acts accordingly. They see themselves as a kind of state and act with the belief that they have the authority to punish. Even if there is no indication [of a threat] whatsoever, they may conduct a strip search to humiliate the individual."
Köprülü also criticized Justice Min. Tunç’s denial of recent police violence and strip search allegations.
"Establishing whether there has been torture or ill-treatment comes as a result of a trial. When it is said in advance that 'there are none,' you put pressure on both the prosecutor and the judge,” Köprülü said. “When the Minister of Justice, who is the head of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors, says there is no torture, who can say there is? But there is torture in Turkey."
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