- Journalist Buse Söğütlü, who was detained while following the 21st Feminist Night March in 2023, stated that she was harassed and tortured by police officers.
- Dilara Aksoy, on the other hand, said she was threatened with death: "The police officer squeezed my throat, looked into my eyes, and said ‘I’ll kill you here.’"
- It was observed that a plainclothes police officer who came to the hearing as an observer entered the courtroom without removing his firearm.
Semra Pelek
The third hearing of the case filed against journalist Buse Söğütlü and four people, who were detained while reporting during the 21st Feminist Night March in 2023, was held at Istanbul 10th Criminal Court of First Instance. The hearing started on time.
Plainclothes police officers who came to the hearing as observers were also present in the courtroom. It was observed that the police entered the courtroom without removing their firearms.
After the judge read the accusation, Bengisu Ebrar Çankaya gave her defense statement, accepting that she participated in the action, but rejecting the claim that she used violence against the police.
"The police used violence on us. I want this situation to be evaluated within the scope of torture," she said.
"They pinned me down and searched my private parts"
Journalist Buse Söğütlü described in detail what she experienced during detention. Söğütlü stated that the group was dispersing at the time of the incident, but she was dragged and taken into the police cordon.
"They pushed me against the police bus, they pinned me down. They searched me, including my bag and my private parts. If they had asked me for my ID, I would have given it anyway," she said.
Söğütlü repeated her statement to the prosecutor and emphasized that she was harassed by the police and reiterated that she is filing a complaint. She also reminded that she was on duty as a journalist on the day of the incident.
Death threat: ‘I’ll kill you here’
One of the defendants, Dilara Aksoy, also said that she was subjected to violence and threatened with death during the detention process.
"A police officer squeezed my throat, looked into my eyes, and said ‘I’ll kill you here.’ Another police officer said ‘Do whatever you want in the vehicle.’ We were thrown into the bus like sacks, they stepped on us. Despite the fact that one of our friends has asthma, they smoked inside the vehicle," she said.
Aksoy said that it would not have been possible for her to use violence against the police while her hands and arms were tied.
However, these accounts of torture were not fully recorded in the court transcript.
One of the defendants, Gözde Çetin, stated that she was exercising her constitutional rights. Regarding the accusations against her, she said:
"The words in the indictment were spoken under panic and stress. I had no personal intent." She said that she knew the complainant police officer Hanefi Zengin from previous protests but that there had been no incident between them.
The prosecutor stated that there were deficiencies in the case file and requested that they be completed.
The court decided that the complainant police officers be brought in by force and postponed the hearing to April 15 at 11:00 a.m.
