Turkey Found Guilty of Excessive Teargas Use & Beating of Turkish Woman on Women's Day, 2006
The European Court of Human Rights released a press statement today (23.07.13) outlining its judgment against Turkey on İzci vs Turkey, first brought before the court in 2006. The press release details what happened to Ms Nergiz İzci of İstanbul some 7 years ago, revealing that the systemic violence routinely used by the Turkish police during the Occupy Gezi protests is nothing new.
In brief, among the report's highlights (or lowlights):
On 6 March 2006, [Ms İzci] took part in a demonstration in Beyazıt Square in Istanbul to celebrate Women’s Day which ended in clashes between police and protesters. Video footage of the events examined by the Court showed police officers hitting a large number of demonstrators with their truncheons and spraying them with tear gas.
Women who had taken refuge in shops were also dragged out by the police and beaten up. According to the report of an expert appointed by the Turkish authorities to examine the video footage, police officers had not issued any warnings to disperse demonstrators before attacking them. The demonstrators, for their part, had not tried to respond to the attack but had only tried to flee. ...
In December 2005, the [Turkish] prosecuting authorities accused a total of 54 police officers of having caused injuries by excessive use of force. The trial started immediately and was concluded in May 2011. 48 police officers were acquitted for lack of evidence. The six remaining defendants were sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 5 to 21 months for having used excessive force against the demonstrators. However, the criminal proceedings against them were discontinued in September 2011 due to the statute of limitations. ...
The judgment, passed by a panel of seven international judges (one Turkish), ruled that Turkey had violated Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment/lack of effective investigation) and Article 11 (freedom of assembly) of the European Convention on Human Rights, and was ordered to pay Ms İzci 20,000 euros (over 50K in TL) in damages.
Despite the mass injustice perpretrated by the police during the Gezi Park protests, not to mention the lengthy court proceedings at the ECHR, imagine the future price tag hanging over the Turkish government...
The full press relase can be downloaded here.
