Police officer jailed for four years, two months for beating man during Gezi protests

A court in the southern province of Antalya on June 28 sentenced a police officer to four years and two months in prison for beating a man with sticks and truncheons during Turkey’s Gezi Park protests in 2013.

Mustafa Düştegör, a musician, filed a legal complaint after he was beaten by six police officers on the night of June 3, 2013 in a side street in Kaleiçi, the historic city center of Antalya.  

The Antalya Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation based on the video footage of the incident. 

The prosecutor demanded that the crime of the police officer, named Ali Osman Parlar, who was seen dragging Düştegör on the ground and beating him, should be regarded within the context of “torture” and not just “injuring.” 

The prosecutor also demanded that the five other police officers, including a commanding chief, be sentenced for failing to intervene.  

Parlar denied the allegations, despite the video footage, but the court sentenced him to four years and two months in prison for “deliberate injury,” “wounding by exceeding the right to use force,” and “causing a permanent scar on the plaintiff’s face.” 

The court also sentenced the remaining five police officers to five months in prison, but deferred the announcement of the verdict. 

Düştegör’s lawyer, Münip Ermiş, objected to the ruling, saying that not just Parlar but all six officers should be convicted for “torture.”