Turkish police raided the Mezopotamya Agency Van office and the homes of the journalists who documented with a hospital report that villagers Turgut and Şiban were thrown from a helicopter by soldiers. Four journalists were detained.
Mezopotamya Agency (MA) Van office and the house of 4 journalists, including journalists from Jinnews, were raided by Turkish police in the morning. MA reporters Adnan Bilen and Cemil Uğur, Jinnews reporter Şehriban Abi and journalist Nazan Sala were detained following the raids. The police, who rummaged meticulously through the houses, seized cameras and technical equipment belonging to the journalists.
The search of the offices by the police lasted a long time. Agency reporters were not allowed to be present during the search. It was learned that the police took Şehriban Abi to the office.
Detained journalist Cemil Uğur documented with a hospital report that Servet Turgut and Osman Şiban, who had been detained by the soldiers during an operation in the rural areas of Çatak, Van, were thrown from helicopters. Again, he exposed and published a lot of information about the incident, especially on the torture suffered by Şiban as well as statements by witnesses.
Turgut, after being thrown from the helicopter, struggled to survive in the intensive care unit for 20 days but lost his life. The Governorship of Van later decided to ban any publication about the incident.
