I. Summary

Turkey 's well documented endemic problems of torture and its notoriously violent policing culture ought to be a thing of the past. Motivated to meet conditions attached to its prospective European Union accession, within the past five years Turkey has made important changes in law and in detention regulations, providing better safeguards for those held in places of detention. Over that period there was a recorded decrease in allegations of torture or ill-treatment of detainees held in the anti-terror departments of police stations.

There are, however, signs of continuing problems of police violence, and a reported rise in overall complaints of torture and police violence since the beginning of 2007. At the core of the persistence of these phenomena is the culture of impunity. Historically, law enforcement officials were rarely if ever held to account, and still less often in a manner that reflected the gravity of the violations committed. Today, despite increased legal safeguards, law enforcement officers who flout them can still enjoy effective impunity when they are alleged to have abused or even unlawfully killed victims.

Police abuse is regularly reported as taking place both outside formal police custody as well as in custody.  Of concern too is the implementation of revised laws pertaining to police powers and the use of force, with a continuing pattern of police shootings, some of them fatal. Investigations of complaints continue to be mired with difficulties, to lack independence, thoroughness, and effectiveness, and to proceed in most cases very slowly.

In this report Human Rights Watch looks at allegations of police violence with a focus on the obstacles to investigation of abuses, and the resulting impunity enjoyed by police officers. The report provides evidence of a continuing culture of police violence in a range of areas: fatal and non-fatal shootings by the police; policing of demonstrations involving ill-treatment and excessive use of force; and ill-treatment during or subsequent to identity checks. Torture or ill-treatment in police custody is a feature of some of the cases too, but not the main focus of this study. We also examine the issue of counter-charges against those who file complains.

When Human Rights Watch interviewed 21-year-old Gul ş ah Aslan in April 2008 she was recuperating at home in Van after police shot her using a rubber bullet that embedded in her shoulder. In Van on March 22 police took action against people celebrating the Newroz spring festival in defiance of a local government order. By Aslan's account she was a passer-by whose path took her face-to-face with police firing indiscriminately at stone-throwing youths, before one of the police took aim at her. As she fled the scene, injured, police pursued her to a relative's house, broke the windows, threw teargas canisters, and beat Aslan and other members of her family.

Muammer Öz was with a family group at the seafront in Kadıköy, Istanbul, one afternoon in July 2007 when they were approached by two uniformed police officers who asked for his brother's ID. When Muammer Öz, a lawyer, challenged the grounds for the police request, he was manhandled, punched, and sprayed with pepper gas. He was beaten further and threatened while being taken to a police station. Two police officers are now on trial for excessive use of force, defamation, and intentional injury of Muammer Öz, but Öz is himself on trial for "using violence or threats against a public official to prevent them from carrying out a duty", an offense carrying a prison sentence of between six months and three years. Öz's case moved to trial much faster than that of his alleged attackers. It has become a routine occurrence for those who complain of police ill-treatment to find themselves in court for "violently resisting the police" before the outcome of a prosecutor's investigation into their own complaint of ill-treatment by the police has even been concluded.

A particular feature of some of the cases covered is the handling of evidence. Examination of the conduct of the police following alleged incidents of torture, ill-treatment, or shootings demonstrates a pattern of misconduct, attempts to conceal, contaminate or plant evidence, and to obstruct the prosecutor's investigation. For example, Nigerian asylum seeker Festus Okey d ied of a single gunshot wound on August 20, 2007, while in police custody in Istanbul, having been stopped, searched, and detained that day. At the time of the shooting Festus Okey had been alone with a police officer who would later claim that Okey had made to grab his gun and that in the ensuing struggle the gun had gone off accidentally. In the hours that followed, the conduct of the police demonstrates such grave failings in following investigative procedures and to collect evidence as to compel the conclusion that there was a concerted attempt to cover up the incident. Instead of being called immediately, the public prosecutor was called to the scene some three hours after the shooting. Amongst those who signed off on the police record of the incident was the police officer who had himself been alone with Festus Okey at the time of the shooting and would later be tried for his killing. Thus the individual implicated in the shooting incident had apparently also been given the duty of joining in the police investigation of the very same incident. Later, key evidence in the form of the vest and t-shirt that Okey was wearing-and which would have helped determine the firing distance-were mysteriously lost.

The cases surveyed represent problems that are not new, but some recent legislative changes-in particular a revised Law on the Powers and Duties of the Police-have contributed to the persistence of a violent policing culture and represent an obstacle to efforts of police reform in Turkey. That law's provision on "use of force and arms" fails to build in the proviso in international standards that use of lethal force must be a last resort and only permissible in order to protect life. Although in practice police already used stop and search powers, the revised provision provided a basis in law for them for the first time. By law, officers may stop people in order to prevent crime if " there is a reasonable ground based on the experience of the police and the impression he gets from the current circumstances." This vague criteria poses a risk that stop and search powers may be invoked in an arbitrary manner.

Public statements by the offices of provincial governors on incidents that are the subject of criminal investigation often prejudice the outcome of the investigation by providing an account based on a one-sided police report. The influence and comments of state authorities represent an obstacle to ensuring an impartial prosecutor's investigation. Individuals, families, and supporters of those who have complained of police violence and publicly discussed their complaint or raised concerns over whether they will see justice may also find themselves prosecuted for "attempting to influence a judicial process," or "insulting the judiciary or the security forces."

The conduct of flawed investigations into allegations of police abuse remains an entrenched problem. The absence of independent and effective investigation mechanisms to enquire into incidents of abuse of force is a serious obstacle to tackling that problem. In general, cases of police violence-ranging from ill-treatment and torture to shootings-still result in a low rate of criminal prosecution. Investigations by prosecutors proceed at a snail's pace, generally taking many months and even years, with the result often being a decision that there is no case to answer. There are still too many cases where prosecutors fail to initiate investigations despite ample public evidence (such as widely broadcast TV footage) of violent police assaults on individuals. Where there is a prosecution, trials, just as investigations, last for years and the rate of conviction is extremely low. Finally, prison sentences for such crimes still remain rare and fail to be commensurate with the gravity of the crime. Aside from criminal prosecution, disciplinary measures against law enforcement personnel for crimes such as ill-treatment are rarer still.

Victims of police violence interviewed in the course of this research frequently told Human Rights Watch that the police have conveyed to them a feeling of being untouchable. The fact that law enforcement feel and in effect are unaccountable is the most significant reason for the continuing culture of police abuse in Turkey including the persistence of torture and ill-treatment.

Key Recommendat ions

To the Turkish Government

• Introduce a system to monitor and review the implementation of the Law on the Powers and Duties of the Police in particular the use of stop and search powers and resort to use of force.
• Introduce mandatory reporting for when stop and search powers are invoked, to help safeguard against human rights violations occuring in the context of using these powers. Police officers should be required to supply a form to individuals stopped which sets out officers' name and number,  the reason for stopping the person and the outcome of the stop and search.

• Revise appendix article 2 of the Law to Fight Terrorism and article 4 (article 16 of Law no. 2559) of the Law on the Powers and Duties of the Police to ensure that the use of force by law enforcement officials is compatible with relevant international standards that provide that lethal force be used only as a last resort when absolutely necessary to protect life.
• As a matter of urgency establish an effective independent police complaints authority with adequate resourcing and a robust mandate to carry out prompt, impartial and thorough investigations into allegations of police misconduct, that are capable to leading to the identification and prosecution of offenders.
• Pending the functioning of such an authority, when allegations of misconduct are made against a police officer, the unit to which s/he belongs should be immediately excluded from any role in conducting the police investigation of the incident, beyond that of providing witness statements. Authority should be immediately handed over to the prosecutor assisted as necessary by police teams from different stations.
• Ensure that video and audio recording in police stations of all interviews of suspects in custody and of all locations in police stations is operational at all times, cannot be tampered with or erased, and is promptly and routinely made available to public prosecutors for purposes of investigating  allegations of human rights violations in custody.
• Securing evidence in the immediate aftermath of a crime is critical. Therefore where incidents involving use of force and resulting injury or death to a detainee or civilian occur, ensure that all physical evidence is left in situ until the arrival of the prosecutor. Prosecutors should immediately proceed to ensure that the evidence is complete, has not been tampered with or been lost. Courts should treat the possibility that evidence has been spoiled as a central factor in a trial, rather than as a peripheral matter of negligence.
• Ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, and implement the Protocol through the creation of an independent national body to carry out regular and ad hoc unannounced visits to all places of detention.
• Ensure that trial hearings of law enforcement officials facing prosecution take place without undue delay by introducing regulatory timeframes for the provision of evidence, an improved and sustainable regulatory framework for trial hearings, and by improving the mechanisms for thorough pretrial preparation.

Methodology

This report is based on Human Rights Watch research in Turkey from February to June 2008. It focuses on Istanbul, Izmir, and Van, but with reference also made to cities such as Diyarbakır and Hakkari. Wh ile the first section of the report assesses progress and setbacks in the combating of torture and ill-treatment, the bulk of the report discusses cases with a view to examining the implementation of laws. Most of the cases discussed in this report are considered in some detail, not simply to document the original allegation of police ill-treatment or torture and what it entailed, but to examine the subsequent handling of the case and investigation. It was not possible to provide a quantitative survey of the problem, so our approach has been to examine in detail a sample of complaints and then the subsequent handling of the case by the prosecutor and-where legal proceedings were underway-the court.

Thirty-seven interviews were conducted in the course of the research, 18 of them with victims and 17 with lawyers. Extensive reference is also made to written complaints to prosecutors, police records, indictments, records of court hearings, and petitions submitted to courts by lawyers. The report documents cases where individuals have lodged official complaints of police violence and therefore does not refer to the many more cases where victims have made allegations but failed to seek a remedy by lodging a complaint. The highest proportion of cases were collected in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city with a population of around 12 million. In subsequent months follow up on some cases will be conducted and findings conveyed to the Turkish government in the form of open letters.

The report's focus is on the police and since research was confined to cities only occasional mention is made of the gendarmerie responsible for policing functions in rural areas. No reference in this report is made to the situation of refugees and migrants, some of whom are held in Foreigners' Guesthouses which are also operated by the Aliens' Department of the Security Directorate (police), as this subject would merit separate and distinct treatment.

All interviews were conducted by a Human Rights Watch researcher who is fluent in Turkish.