Turkish policeman beats 8-year-old child on street

MERSİN

DHA Photo

A policeman in the southern province of Mersin allegedly beat an 8-year-old boy on the street in front of his colleagues until the boy fainted, resulting in his hospitalization.

D.Ö. was beaten by a police officer as he was playing with a friend in front of a police station on Sept. 11, daily Cumhuriyet has reported, adding that the boy has been receiving medical treatment for internal bleeding since the incident.

The incident, which was confirmed by the Mersin Police Directorate, occurred in front of the Şevket Sümer neighborhood’s Siteler police station.

The police officer asked D.Ö. to slap his friend as they were playing, adding that he would slap the victim if he refused to obey. D.Ö., however, refused the officer’s order and allegedly received a slap in the face in response.

D.Ö. said he then ran while shouting obscenities at the officer, but the policeman eventually caught him, after which he proceeded to hit the boy and kick his head into a police car.

Other police officers intervened and stopped the attacker, D.Ö. said.

The victim said the other officers subsequently took him to the police station before stripping and washing him, after which they sent him home to his mother.

D.Ö.’s family took him to the Mersin Maternity and Child Hospital where they determined that his ribs and some parts of his body were harmed, including his kidney.

Doctors decided to hospitalize the child, who has remained under hospital care for the past week.
D.Ö.’s mother, Kamile Ö., said she ran to the police station after neighbors told her that her son was in the police station.

“After a neighbor told me my son was almost dying, I ran to the police station. A police officer asked me what sort of mother I was, saying my son cursed him and he beat him. […] When I opened the door and saw my son naked and wet there, I lost my temper and sought out that police officer [who confessed to beating the son], but I could not find him, his friends sent him away. The policemen said my son should stay with them for a while, and they sent me home before sending my son with a police officer,” she told Cumhuriyet.

Kamile Ö. Said her son subsequently began to vomit, prompting them to take him to the hospital.
D.Ö.’s father, Abdülkadir Ö., said they filed a criminal complaint against the police officer and that they wanted closed-circuit cameras in the area to be examined.

Mersin Police Directorate Deputy Director General Hasan Güner has confirmed the incident and said an administrative investigation had been launched against the police officer in question.