Former HDP candidate claims he was tortured while detained following Ankara bombing

ISTANBUL

Twin blasts killed at least 102 people in Ankara on Oct. 10. AP Photo

A Kurdish problem-oriented Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy candidate for the June 7 elections has claimed he was tortured while under detention for allegedly sharing posts on Twitter which gave information in advance about the Ankara bombing on Oct. 10, daily Cumhuriyet reported on its website on Oct. 18.

The HDP deputy candidate for the June 7 elections and Özgür Gündem columnist, identified only by the initials M.S.P., said he had been ill-treated and tortured while detained by the Anti-Terror Department in Turkey’s southeastern province of Şanlıurfa. 

M.S.P. said a man, who had claimed to be a counter-guerilla department head and had allegedly traveled 232 kilometers for the interrogation, had pressured him to admit to operating a second twitter account, even though he did not. 

M.S.P. said the man had initially asked if a Twitter account belonged to him and he replied it did not belong to him and he also did not know to whom it belonged. 

“[The alleged counter-guerilla department head] said that I was done and that I would receive a penalty of up to 20 or 22 years [in prison]. My face and head was struck by a heavy material even though my hands were handcuffed behind my back and my eyes were blindfolded. They kept me on my feet for about three or four hours. They kicked me every time they were bringing me to my feet after I fell down,” said M.S.P.  

After the interrogation, M.S.P. was released. 

Halil İbrahim Vargün, M.S.P.’s attorney, said posts had been shared from his client’s Twitter account while his client was in custody, thus “a sign that the police wanted to create evidence.”