Turkish policemen acquitted in re-trial of human rights case

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

Update!
http://www.ozgurluk.org/hrights/manisa


   ANKARA, Jan 27 (AFP) - A Turkish court on Wednesday acquitted 10  
policemen on charges of having tortured twelve adolescents in what 
has become known as the case of the "Children of Manisa", a court 
spokesman said. 
   The court in the western town of Manisa handed down a first  
acquittal last March, but was ordered by the Court of Appeals in 
October to retry the case. 
   "It emerges clearly from the medical evidence that the suspects  
were tortured during police interrogation in Manisa," the Appeals 
Court said at the time. 
   But the Manisa court repeated its verdict of not guilty and  
ordered the policemen released, the spokesman in Manisa said. 
   The prosecution had asked for prison terms of up to twelve  
years. 
   The case now goes back to the Court of Appeals, the spokesman  
said. 
   "This is a faulty verdict," Sabri Ergul, a parliamentary deputy  
who represented the Manisa youths as a lawyer, told AFP. 
   "It is not lawful for a local court to pass over an Appeals  
Court ruling and insist on its original decision," Ergul said. 
   "We are certain that the Court of Appeals will overturn this  
verdict too," he added. 
   "If Turkey wants to win respect in the world, it must punish  
torture," Ergul said. "This is all we want." 
   The policemen were accused of having tortured the adolescents,  
aged 15 to 18 at the time, in January 1996 to extract confessions of 
membership in an outlawed left-wing group. 
   According to medical evidence presented in court, the youths  
suffered electric shocks, sexual abuse and other forms of torture. 
   Several of the adolescents were sentenced to prison terms of up  
to twelve years on the basis of their confessions and spent more 
than two years in jail, before the Court of Appeals last year 
ordered them released and retried. 
   They are currently on trial in Izmir, where the prosecution has  
asked for prison terms of two years each. 
   The case has become one of the most notorious human rights cases  
in Turkey. 
  	   	


-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
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