A Hatay Metropolitan Municipality worker was detained as a “suspect,” tortured by soldiers and police while trying to check on his home damaged in the earthquakes, and died in a suspicious traffic accident two days later. His family has been seeking justice for three years.
Tahsin Nihadioğlu, whose home was damaged in the February earthquakes, entered the house on February 13 to get a blanket. Unable to convince the police and soldiers that the house belonged to him, he was subjected to torture. On February 15, a few days after the torture, he lost his life in a traffic accident. The case related to the accident was closed, while no one has been sentenced in the torture case. The family has continued to demand justice for Tahsin Nihadioğlu for three years.
After the February 6 earthquakes, Tahsin Nihadioğlu had gone to Antalya, but he was called back to work by Hatay Metropolitan Municipality and returned to Hatay. Feeling cold in the tent where he was staying with other workers, he went to his collapsed home to take a blanket. As he was leaving the house, he was detained by soldiers and police, accused of being a “looter,” and subjected to hours of torture. The torture was not officially documented. After hours of abuse, Nihadioğlu was released in Sevgı Park in the Defne district of Hatay, where earthquake survivors were staying.
Seeking to travel to Antalya after the torture he endured, Nihadioğlu died in a traffic accident on the way. The driver of a vehicle belonging to the Otokoç company that struck him was found not at fault by the court, and the case was closed. The case filed over the torture has been left unresolved.
Ali Eriz, the family’s lawyer in the case, said the following about the unlawful practices involved: “Not all witnesses were heard. Barış Atay, who was a member of parliament at the time and who took Tahsin and his friend out of the hands of the police officers who were torturing them and made the case public, as well as some of the medical workers, were not heard. The statements of the police officers were deemed sufficient. A decision of non-prosecution was issued without all the evidence being collected and without adequate investigation. We have now filed an application with the Constitutional Court.
In the reports obtained in the murder file, Tahsin was found to be fully at fault, and the objections filed against these reports were not taken into account. Despite our objections in the file, all reports continued to portray Tahsin as the party at fault. The responsibility of public officials was not investigated, despite the driver’s excessive speed and the lack of lighting at the junction, which is a busy inter-district crossing point. Because the death occurred after the torture incident, no examination was conducted to determine whether there was a connection between the two.
Whether there is a link between the two files is an important subject of investigation, yet neither the Kırıkhan Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office nor the Hatay Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office carried out any inquiry in this regard; on the contrary, it appears they deliberately avoided establishing any connection.”
Tahsin Nihadioğlu’s brother, Zeynel Nihadioğlu, also spoke about what happened at the time: “In relation to the torture process, a photograph of a police vehicle was found on my brother’s phone after his death. After his death, the Hatay Governor’s Office did not grant permission for an investigation into the four police officers who carried out the torture. However, the General Directorate of Security took statements from the perpetrators. The perpetrators claimed that examinations found no elements of a crime and that they handed him over to Barış Atay because they trusted him. They stated, ‘We did not torture him; we only invited him into the vehicle.’ We filed a case with the Adana Regional Administrative Court against the governor’s refusal to grant investigation permission. The court ruled that the torture incident must be investigated and sent the file to Hatay. However, the courts in Hatay rejected all our objections and again refused permission for an investigation. According to them, there was no concrete evidence. We took the torture case to the Constitutional Court. We are currently awaiting a decision. In the event of a possible rejection, we will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
Zeynel Nihadioğlu said that despite repeated demands, the statements of Barış Atay, who was a member of parliament at the time and witnessed the torture, as well as those of journalists Umut Taştan and Seçil Özer, have not been included in the case file. Nihadioğlu said: “There were many witnesses to the torture, first and foremost Barış Atay. However, the authorities have been extremely slow in taking witness statements. The statement of Halil Yakut, who is both a torture survivor and a witness, could only be taken two years later. At the medical tent in Sevgı Park, nurse Seda Kaya gave a statement saying that she had identified signs of torture. Despite this, there is still no permission for an investigation. On the program Başka Bir Gün on Kültür Radio Television, journalist Umut Taştan said live on air, ‘I also witnessed the signs of torture.’ We asked for this to be included in the case file as well. Despite all this, permission has still not been granted.”
Nihadioğlu said that their requests to have evidence included in the file have either been rejected or met with negative responses. He continued: “We requested that the police radio records be examined. We were told that ‘it could not be determined which unit the police obtained their radios from.’ We requested that the camera recordings from the MOBESE system (Mobile Electronic System Integration) in Elektrik neighbourhood, where the torture took place, be examined. A response came nine months later, saying that recordings are kept for only 30 days and had therefore been deleted. On February 15, 2023, doctors working at Hatay Training and Research Hospital prepared reports noting ‘traffic accident/assault.’ They also prevented the assault report from being included in the case file. Despite all these concrete pieces of evidence, the torture file is constantly rejected on the grounds that the allegations are “abstract.” Because the law is not functioning, we are constantly in the streets, in the squares, and in spaces of struggle.”
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