Minister faces ‘his ‘torturer at panel

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

A deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has said he faced his torturer at a parliamentary commission meeting.

During a recent meeting of the Parliamentary Commission on Coups, Istanbul deputy Harun Karaca had the chance to ask Adil Serdar Saçan, a former police chief, about his reported torture 11 years ago. The deputy said he was devastated to see Saçan deny claims he inflicted torture.

Karaca was detained and tortured in 2003 under an investigation known as Akbil Operation, which looked into corruption claims regarding money from the Istanbul Municipality’s public transportation payment system, Akbil.

The investigation focused on alleged crimes committed in 1999, when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was Istanbul Mayor and Karaca was a member of the municipal committee. According to daily Radikal, in his Oct. 18 testimony at the parliamentary commission, Karaca elaborated on the physical violence he had been exposed to at the Istanbul Police Department for Organized Crimes during the period that he was detained. His torturer Saçan was present at the committee, to whom Karaca directly asked whether or not he had tortured him by ordering him to take off all of his clothes.

Daily Star quoted Karaca’s testimony and said Saçan reportedly rejected all claims of torture. Karaca was quoted as saying he was given electro-shock treatment and that his torturers had squeezed his testicles. According to Karaca, he was forced to stand completely naked except for a blindfold.

“They were taking us to a hospital every day and were getting a report that proved we had not been tortured, but the doctors were signing a fake document. Only one of them had a good conscience and noticed marks of torture on one of my fellow sufferers and submitted a report confirming the torture. That report went to the press and immediately a case was opened for doctors issuing fake [medical] reports. In the end the doctors were acquitted,” daily Star reported Karaca as saying.

After four days of torture Karaca went to testify at court as part of the legal investigation and was acquitted of all charges.