Detained university students in solitary confinement for a month

There is no end to arbitrary arrests and detentions in Turkey. Detentions are now no longer justified by anti-government tweets, but by conversations on the street or letters to prison. The two students, Şura Başer and Can Kaba, are an example of this persecution.

Başer and Kaba were detained on 10 November 2021 during an identity check in Bakırköy Court and were jailed two days after their arrest on charges of “membership of a terrorist organisation” and “propaganda for a terrorist organisation”.

Abuse and threats of rape in police custody

Başer reported mistreatment at the Bakırköy court police station and at the Osmaniye police station. She filed a complaint and told the prosecution: “On 10 November, Can and I were checked when we entered the Bakırköy court. It turned out that our arrest had been ordered. They said they just had something to do with us for a moment. We were taken to the police station. From the moment we entered the police station, the policemen there started calling us ‘terrorists’. Can and I had our hands cuffed behind our backs. They pushed me down and kept banging my head on the floor, they grabbed my hair so hard that it was pulled out. They pushed Can to the ground, kicked him and sat on him. They hit his head on the floor. I was beaten and kicked by about ten policemen because I protested what they were doing to Can. They said, ‘I would rape you, but you are ugly.’ They didn’t let us go to the toilet for four or five hours. We were then taken from Osmaniye police station to the anti-terror department of the police in Eskişehir. In Eskişehir we were later taken to the hospital for a protocol. There they forcibly twisted Can’s arms and insulted him.”

“You will kiss our feet”

In his testimony, Can Kaba recounts how he was beaten with his hands cuffed behind his back and how this abuse continued at the Osmaniye police station. He stated: “They tried to search me while I was in handcuffs behind my back. In the process, they beat me dozens of times. They insulted us, sat on us and beat us. They said things like ‘You will kiss our feet. If we are to be fascists, then we are fascists’. They didn’t let us go to the toilet until 7pm. Around 10pm, a unit from Eskişehir came to get us. That same night, around 1.30am, we were taken to the hospital. On the way back from the hospital, four policemen twisted my arms when I tried to get into a vehicle. I was handcuffed. One policeman threatened that he would kill our mothers. I filed a complaint against the policemen at the police station in Bakırköy court, as well as those in Osmaniye and at the anti-terror police station in Eskişehir.”

The trial is an example of arbitrary repression

After two days in police custody, Başer and Kaba were arrested on 12 November for “membership in a terrorist organisation” and “propaganda for a terrorist organisation”. The indictment states that they met with Beyza Gülmen, the sister of academic Nuriye Gülmen, who was dismissed by decree to protest for her sister’s reinstatement, and that they also wrote letters to political prisoners, wrote social media posts about political prisoners who died on death fast, participated in press statements for sick prisoners and changed cities several times. The testimony of a key witness that they were sympathisers but not members of a terrorist organization was also used to justify the alleged “membership in a terrorist organisation”. As the Eskişehir 2nd Heavy Penal Court decided not to have jurisdiction over their case, the trial was transferred to Istanbul.

“Their lives are being stolen”

Burak Başer, the brother of Şura Başer, who is detained in Eskişehir’s L-Type prison, pointed out that his elder sister and Kaba have been held incommunicado for a month. Normally, prisoners are only supposed to stay in solitary confinement for 20 days after their detention. However, he said that first the pandemic was cited as the reason for the extension of solitary confinement and then that there were no places. He stated that his sister keeps protesting against this and cannot even visit the infirmary because of humiliating searches. Letters are also confiscated. Başer says that Kaba’s situation is even worse: “In his first cell in Eskişehir H-type prison there were not even window panes. He spent several days in the cold. Eventually, windows were installed. The toilet had no door. For 15 days he was denied access to the yard. His letters were not handed over to him and the letters he wrote were confiscated.”

Başer said his sister and Kaba’s lives were literally being stolen, calling for sensitivity to this injustice.