Officers Located, Beat Gezi Protester Through Wiretap: Police Report

- A university student who was repeatedly assaulted by police during the 2013 Gezi protests in Eskişehir was beaten by officers after they determined his location by tapping his phone, a police report has revealed.

Tevfik Caner Ertay, 24, suffered a broken nose and several other injuries after four separate beatings by police officers in the Central Anatolian province on the night of June 2, 2013, not far from where police and civilians administered a fatal beating to fellow university student Ali İsmail Korkmaz.

The report recommended that a number of officers be prevented from receiving promotions for between four and 16 months as a result of the beatings and a failure to inform superiors about the incident.

A newly released police report has revealed that officers listened in on a phone call made by Ertay as part of a “preventative wiretapping” program that was enacted because the student was involved in left-wing political activity in the province, discovering his location in an old car park before coming to beat him.

Ertay told the Hürriyet Daily News that he had already been beaten once by police before seeking refuge in the old car park before being found again by officers.

The report, penned by Zeki Acar, criticized police chiefs Murat Umutlu, Ayhan Karayel and Mustafa Aygün for their dereliction of duty in the incident. “Despite overt signs of bruising everywhere and the determination that Ertay, who was known for his frequent participation in protests, had been severely beaten and bruised in 13 different areas, the police chiefs’ failure to show the necessary attention, launch the relevant procedures and display any effort to shed light on the crime harms the trust in and respect of the police.”

The report accused the chiefs of having full knowledge that Ertay was beaten on more than one occasion despite offering no resistance.

According to the report, police officer Mevlüt Saldoğan, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail for beating Korkmaz to death, informed fellow officers about orders from higher up to go to the car park and “detain” Ertay.

According to the report, officers Adem Arslan, Ahmet Kızıl and İzzet Erkan found Ertay in the car park before administering a second beating to the university student. The trio subsequently brought Ertay to the courtyard of the old car park, where officers Umutlu, Saldoğan, Ömer Faruk Albayrak, Emre Koç, Mehmet Nuri Eliaçık and Adil Çavdar helped administer a third beating.

Ertay was then bundled into the trunk of a police car to be taken to a hospital. Later, however, the car stopped in front of a Justice and Development Party (AKP) building where Aygün, Karayel, Mustafa Arık and Halil Kısalar aided in the administration of a fourth beating.

In his report, Acar demanded that Arslan, Erkan and Kızıl be prevented from receiving a promotion for 12 months for “beating people brought to a police station,” that four other officers receive a four-month ban for withholding information from superiors and that Aygün, Karayel and Umutlu be handed a 16-month ban for “engaging in activity and displaying behavior that would harm the respect and trust necessitated by an official position of service.”

The report has been forwarded to the Eskişehir Chief Prosecutor’s Office for further consideration.

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