Mehmet Ali Sahin, Turkey’s minister of justice, apologized to the family of Engin Ceber, a human rights activist who was beaten to death by officers in a prison in Istanbul. 29 year old Engin Ceber was arrested for protesting the death of a fellow activist who was killed in a police shooting last year. He was sent to a prison in Istanbul where he was brutally beaten until contacting his lawyer. He was then taken to a hospital where he fell into a coma and died. 19 prison officers have since then been suspended from duty.
Atfer the Abu Ghraib scandal shocked the world, how was it that this didn’t? Sure, in Abu Ghraib there were cases of abuse and humiliation, but no one died. No one in Abu Ghraib was beaten until their state of health was critical to the point in which they died. There was another case of a man dying in police custody last year, and since then no investigation has even started. Is there no higher authority within these prisons?
How is it that these atrocities take place if the Turkish government has a zero-tolerance policy regarding torture?
Full story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7670678.stm
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