Ahmet Şık, an MP with the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP) has submitted a parliamentary question about the beating of eight refugees on the Turkey-Syria border. Two of them were killed.
Middle East Eye first reported the March 11 incident, citing one of the eight people and the groups controlling the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, through which the refugees, including killed ones, were deported. Two people who incurred serious injuries were put into intensive care in Syria.
In the following days, bianet learned from the lawyer who took up the case that prosecutors had opened a murder investigation against three gendarmerie officers. Two lieutenants and one first lieutenant were arrested but later released upon judicial control measures.
A soldier at the border post said in his statement to the prosecutors that he had heard the voices of refugees being beaten by officers after they were caught and taken to the checkpoint in a vehicle, bianet learned.
In his motion, MP Şık asked Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu whether the allegations of torture and ill-treatment and the killing of refugees at the hand of the soldiers were accurate.
He also asked about the health of the other refugees and where they are kept right now.
The MP also asked the following questions:
“Are the allegations reported in the press that two lieutenants and one first lieutenant were arrested are correct?
“Does your ministry have any work regarding the prevention of torture?
“How many officers working in the law enforcement agencies of your ministry since 2016 have been investigated on charges of torture and ill-treatment, and how many have been punished?” (AS/VK)
Source:Bianet
