AI: Turkey bulletin

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

------------ Forwarded from : Ray Mitchell <rmitchellai at gn.apc.org> ------------

EXTERNAL                                            AI Index: EUR 44/104/95

EXTRA 116/95            Fear of Torture                   29 September 1995

TURKEY            Ismet Celikaslan (f), Mersin Provincial Board member of
                  HADEP (People's Democracy Party)


Amnesty International fears that Ismet Celikaslan, who has been held
incommunicado since being detained in Mersin on 27 September 1995, may be
tortured.

During the week of 18 September, Ismet Celikaslan had appeared on the
Kurdish owned and operated satellite TV channel "Med TV" which broadcasts
into Turkey from outside the country. She had presented the case of her
daughter Leman Celikaslan who alleged that she was repeatedly raped in July
during 13 days in police custody in Ankara.

Following her TV appearance, police came several times to Ismet
Celikaslan's home in Mersin.  She reportedly found a listening device
behind her refrigerator and received a threatening letter.  On 27
September, three plainclothes police officers arrived at her house, and
told her that there was a document concerning her at the Police
Headquarters and that they needed to talk to her about it. Initially she
resisted, but when the police threatened to take her along by force, she
went with them.  Her lawyer telephoned the Police Headquarters one hour
later and was told that Ismet Celikaslan was being held, but that the
lawyer could not see her as she was being held under the Anti-Terror Law.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Leman Celikaslan (24) was detained on 21 July and held at Ankara Police
Headquarters for 13 days. She alleged that during this time she was not
only tortured, but also repeatedly raped by several officers. According to
her own account she was taken by police officers from the Anti-Terror
Branch of Ankara Police Headquarters to a woodland, stripped naked, tied up
against a tree and sexually assaulted. She was then taken to Ankara Police
Headquarters where during interrogation she was raped by three police
officers. As a result of the rape Leman Celikaslan was bleeding severely
for days.

When she was to be medically examined prior to being committed to prison,
she did not want to undress and so the doctor certified that there were no
signs of ill-treatment. One week later, on 9 August, she filed a complaint
of rape with the prosecutor and asked to be sent to hospital. When she was
referred to the Forensic Medicine Institute the following day, she asked
for a female doctor. As there was none, she refused to be examined. When
the doctor asked whether she had been raped or sexually assaulted, she
replied that she had been. He then referred her to hospital.

On 17 August she was taken by gendarmerie soldiers from prison to hospital
where she was examined. The doctor maintained that due to the amount of
time that had elapsed, he was not able to state whether rape had taken
place. Leman Celikaslan stated that one of the officers whom she had
recognized while being suspended during interrogation, was present at the
hospital while she was there.

On 18 August a prosecutor took a detailed statement from Leman Celikaslan
concerning her allegation of rape and advised her to give up her complaint
as she was not going to win such a case. There were prison gendarmes
present in the room while she gave testimony, but no lawyer on her behalf.

During the preliminary investigation of her complaint, the chief prosecutor
made a public statement saying that Leman Celikaslan had not been raped and
that he considered opening a prosecution against her because of her
allegation. An investigation has since been opened against Naciye Erkol,
President of the Ankara Branch of the Human Rights Association (HRA), for
"insulting the police" in a press statement which the HRA had issued on the
case.

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