Interior minister criticizes media reports on beating

KONYA - Doğan News Agency

Interior Minister Şahin speaks to reporters during his visit to a police station in the central Anatolian province of Konya. AA photo

Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin has criticized the media for the coverage of a beating at a police station in the Aegean province of İzmir and asked if the accused police officers should be “hanged instead of being punished according to laws.”

Şahin told reporters yesterday in the central Anatolian province of Konya that an official investigation about the police officers who beat Fevziye Cengiz at İzmir Karabağlar Police Station in July was in progress. “The İzmir governor already apologized for the incident, and I apologize, too,” the interior minister said, adding that the broadcast of the security camera footage that showed two police officers beating Cengiz was “misleading.”

A Turkish daily released on Dec. 9 footage showing two police officers beating a detained woman at a police station in the Aegean province of İzmir.

The footage was obtained from a police station in İzmir and was recorded in July, according to the report by Kemal Göktaş of daily Vatan.

Three police officers were temporarily relieved of their duties, İzmir police said in a written statement Dec. 10. The statement claimed Cengiz, the victim of the beating, resisted police officers, and police officers Tekin Doğan, Beyit Sezgen and Hakan Yörük filed a complaint against her.

“Our ministry started an investigation on July 17 and the footage was discovered on Dec. 3 and has been broadcast as if it were new,” said Şahin, adding that the footage was already in the prosecutor’s file for the case. “The footage was delivered to the prosecutors by police officers. Nobody is hiding anything,” said the interior minister.

Şahin said there could be wrongdoing of some employees but the progress in the course of action was good.

“The police officers behaved in a way which we do not approve and the case is in prosecution,” he said. “Shall we hang them instead of punishing according to laws?”

Şahin also criticized a TV program that Cengiz recently attended.

“Some people are trying to damage the public image of the police,” he said. He complained there were many other events in the country the media have not shown any interest in.