Beating case in higher court

İZMİR - Doğan News Agency

Fevziye Cengiz was beaten at İzmir’s Karabağlar Police Station. DHA photo

A court in the Aegean province of Izmir ruled that it lacked jurisdiction in the first hearing of a case regarding a woman beaten by local police officers last year, passing the file on to the Court for Serious Crimes.

The judge indicated the three police officers should be tried on the charge of torture and forwarded the file to the higher court, similar to another court which had also ruled for lack of jurisdiction in the same case on Feb. 15.Police officers detained Fevziye Cengiz, 37, while she was spending time with her family at an entertainment venue on the grounds that she did not have an identity card on her. Cengiz was later beaten at the Karabağlar Police Station.

Footage of the beating surfaced after the incident on Dec. 2011, leading to a public outcry and causing İzmir Gov. Mustafa Cahit Kıraç to issue an official apology.

A lawsuit was filed against Cengiz with a sentence of up to 6.5 years imprisonment on the grounds that she had insulted and battered the police. The three officers accused of beating Cengiz were charged with “simple injury,” with a demand for their imprisonment to be a maximum of 1.5 years.