Beaten Son of HDP Deputy: They Beat Me Worse as They Knew I was Son of Hüda Kaya

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Detained after the protest organized in İstanbul’s Kadıköy district on November 6 following arrest of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ and seven deputies of the party, and allegedly tortured in custody, Muhammed Cihad Ebrari, the son of HDP İstanbul MP Hüda Kaya’s son, told bianet what happened.

Telling that he was beaten as he was being detained, taken to police station, in police vehicle, in police station and hospital, Ebrari said his L4 bone in his spine was broken and there are various bruises on his body.

As taken into custody

“It was a women’s protest, we as men didn’t participate in the protest, we were outside of it.

“After the protest was over and the women were dispersing, they commenced detention proceedings for men.

“Some women started to oppose the detention proceeding. My mother was among those women. I was always next to my mother in case something bad would happen to her.

“They started push and shove her. When a police officer directly intervened in my mother, I came between them and they detained me”.

In custody

“I was constantly beaten as being taken into custody and in police vehicle on the way to a police station.

“I didn’t spend much time with other detainees but I heard that they were too being pounded. I witnessed orders were given such as ‘get down on your knee-sit-stand up.

“Not only me but the others taken into custody with me were beaten too until we got to the hospital. They concentrated on me a bit more since they knew I was Hüda Kaya’s son”.

As taken to hospital

“I was beaten as I was being detained, in the police vehicle on the way to the police station, in the station and on the way to hospital.

“I felt the bone break on the way to the hospital. I wasn’t able to sit but they still beat even in that state.

“When they put me into the hospital, they shouted ‘terrorist, terrorist’ to prevent a possible public reaction as they took me into a room”.

In the hospital

“I was held with handcuffs in the hospitals. Police wanted to take me to prosecutor’s office by their own vehicle despite my broken spine.

“However, stating that I cannot sit and I have medical report, my relatives refused this and prevented police from taking me to the prosecutor’s office by their vehicle.

“The police suddenly took off my handcuffs in the afternoon and left. In the evening hours, I learned that I was released”. (EKN/TK)